Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, society, in general, has been through a lot of changes. Social interactions, for instance, have been reduced to mitigate the spread of the virus.
For this reason, the importance of remote interactions between healthcare providers and patients has been brought to the forefront.
Due to the enormous opportunity this gives for doctors to expand their geographic service area to almost anyplace with an internet connection, search engine optimization, often known as SEO, is becoming a crucial component of expanding a telemedicine practice. If you want to know more about digital marketing, check out this page.
Although you may already be using alternative treatments for certain conditions like chronic pain, consulting a physician is still recommended. Reason is, getting consultation can help you get reliable diagnosis on your health issues. With its help, you can avoid getting harmed or having wrong diagnoses which might lead also to incorrect treatment or having to work on assumption of multiple different simultaneous problems.
What Is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine refers to a video or an audio interaction between patients and their healthcare providers. It also includes remote consultation, monitoring, counseling, and diagnosis.
Using telecommunications technology, telemedicine enables the medical professionals to assess, identify, and treat patients from a distance. In the past ten years, the method has undergone a startling evolution and is now playing a larger role in the healthcare system.
Benefits of Telemedicine for Chronic Pain
Chronic pain may last over three months. The pain may be felt in different body parts and may come and go depending on the severity of the condition.
Chronic pain may interfere with your everyday routines, leading to depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. Hence, you must also stay connected with your healthcare provider regularly. As mentioned above, consultation is essential to ensure you are still healthy.
Most people recover from pain following an injury or operation and return to normalcy. However, there are times when the pain lasts longer or appears suddenly without any prior history of an injury or surgery.
This section will discuss the benefits of telemedicine for chronic pain.
Top 4 Benefits of Telemedicine for Chronic Pain Treatment
1. Bridging Medical Care Gaps
Healthcare providers can complete telemedicine evaluations in a skilled nursing facility before discharge to coordinate transition care.
In addition, this medical approach can be used to correlate outpatient pain before discharge from an outside emergency room or hospital.
2. Efficiency and Convenience
A 2024qualitative survey study examined physicians’ perspectives of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
The clinicians’ attitudes toward telemedicine were positive, with 88.4% of the respondents stating their willingness to adopt this medical approach.
The result showed that the primary reason for healthcare providers’ willingness to adopt telemedicine included convenience for patients. Other reasons include:
- Increased diagnosis and treatment efficiency
- Reduced patient burden
- Conduciveness to medical equity
- Reduced medical costs
- Enhanced patient satisfaction
An observational study from JMIR Human Factors showed high patient satisfaction with telemedicine amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
Based on the study, patient satisfaction with telemedicine stems from the degree of trust in their physicians.
Meanwhile, a cost analysis study examined telemedicine in the management of chronic pain.
Results showed that telemedicine is cost-effective over many assumptions, including fuel costs, travel distance, annual patient volumes, discount rates, and amortization.
3. Psychosocial and Motivational Considerations
Physicians may obtain an informal evaluation of a patient’s mental health status through audio or video telemedicine.
They may also observe other social information like how you interact with your family, relatives, or other people in your household.
By having all the information gathered from audio or video telemedicine, your clinician may better understand your commitment to and compliance with previous and future recommendations. Jersey Premier Pain is a leading medical company that specializes in pain management and utilizes state-of-the-art technology, such as audio or video telemedicine, to provide personalized care that is tailored to each patient’s unique needs and preferences.
4. Remote Comprehensive Evaluation
A doctor can still perform a comprehensive history and examination if a video telemedicine evaluation includes a review of the diagnosis received through a separate web-based application.
Examples of these web-based applications include pain, sleep, mood, and expectation ratings.
Disadvantages of Telemedicine in Chronic Pain
Like any other medical approach, telemedicine also has drawbacks, including:
1. Reduced Quality of Provider-Patient Interaction
Without a physical interaction between you and your healthcare provider, nonverbal cues are lost, making it difficult to discuss complex issues related to pain management.
There is also a possibility of bias because your physician only sees your home environment and social cues via telemedicine.
2. Inadequate Patient Engagement
Additional distractors at home, such as other people in the household, television, computer, and other gadgets, may affect your engagement during your telemedicine session.
In addition, video connections can be unreliable at times. When lag time exists, it can limit a smooth conversation between you and your healthcare provider.
2. Cost Considerations
There is a persisting question on national and local reimbursement for telemedicine, not to mention the lack of hospital facility fees and co-pays for telemedicine visits.
During a COVID-19 emergency, you may be billed by time for every telemedicine phone appointment.
4. Limitations in Physical Examination
As for the safety and feasibility of a virtual physical exam, most specialties have demonstrated ways of adapting through advanced technology or the assistance of another healthcare worker, with very few cases of adverse events.
However, a proper physical examination is necessary for common pain complaints to establish a differential diagnosis.
Moreover, a physical exam may help differentiate disease progression from variation because of natural history.
Since the in-person visit is not possible or extremely challenging, some procedures may not be performed accordingly. In addition, not all procedures can be covered by insurance.
Your hygiene and behavior may also be difficult to examine without a face-to-face visit.
Conclusion
Telemedicine is a promising medical approach. Patients with an established relationship with their physicians may be the most suitable for it.
Still, telemedicine isn’t a one-size-fits-all alternative to traditional medical consultations and procedures.
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze its effect on healthcare systems as clinical care provisions evolve after the COVID-19 global health crisis.
Nina Smith 
Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder