How video is shaping the future of telemedicine

Video conferencing in healthcare

Telemedicine, specifically video or audio-based telemedical communication, can make doctor visits more efficient and accessible. Take a working mother whose child has chronic ear infections, for example. Instead of taking the whole day off from work, loading the child into the car, and heading to the nearest clinic, she can speak with a doctor from the comfort of her own home and get a faster diagnosis and prescription, all while avoiding exposure to disease and infection inside a doctor’s waiting room.

In other instances, virtual visits are more than convenient; they are life-saving. For instance, doctors can use video to quickly diagnose a stroke victim’s symptoms and suggest immediate action to minimize further damage to the brain or bring in specialists around the country to provide instant care.

A survey by the American Journal of Managed Care suggests that telemedicine can make a patient’s visit time last about 13-15 minutes, while an in-person visit could take up to two hours. In addition, a 2019 survey by Massachusetts General Hospital found that 83% of patients felt that the care they received with telemedicine was better than an in-person visit. 66% of patients felt even more connected to their telehealth practitioner.

For patients who are house-bound and have restrictions on movement, or who live in inaccessible or underserved rural areas, telemedicine provides access to the quality healthcare that they deserve.

How telemedicine facilitates better care

Quicker, more convenient care represents just two of the many advantages of telemedicine. Telemedicine, particularly video communication, facilitates an open and effective conversation between patients and care providers. Patients and doctors agree that telemedicine often leads to an improved quality of care and more reliable patient follow-through.

Video communication-powered telemedicine has a slew of benefits, one of the most important being that patients tend to experience an increased sense of trust. Since they are speaking to a physician from the comfort of their own homes, patients are more likely to open up. They feel less anxious and are more likely to freely report their condition.

The doctor gains a more honest assessment of patient health and expectations. Additionally, seeing the doctor face-to-face in a video conference, and being able to get back in touch with him or her at any time, increases the likelihood that patients will follow recommendations and take an active, hands-on role in their own health. 

Of course, limitations on physical examination do exist when talking about video-based telehealth solutions. However, many conditions can be accurately diagnosed without an in-person assessment. Importantly, telehealth appointments remain thorough and highly personal. Researchers at Stanford Medicine’s Presence 5 initiative want to ensure that virtual medical visits retain the ‘human touch.’ “The rapport that we build with patients is critical for patients’ health and for physicians’ wellness,” said Megha Shankar, MD9. 

Often, telemedicine represents the first step in the medical process, where the physician builds a rapport with a patient, takes the medical history, and assesses the patient’s overall appearance.  This last part of a video visit helps physicians determine whether their patients need in-person attention. With this in mind, a high-quality video solution contributes to a more accurate diagnosis and better overall quality of care.

Providers see big benefits from telemedicine

In addition to the benefits telemedicine offers patients, video conferencing enables healthcare providers to set their own schedules and maintain patient contact with less travel and less pressure to treat as many patients as possible in a set time. Unfortunately, doctors’ offices today can sometimes be run like assembly lines to maximize their efficiency.

Since telemedicine is so quick, yet so personal, physicians who use it can more easily maintain patient relationships, as well as their own mental and emotional health. It allows them to effectively manage their time — which is the most important resource to any healthcare provider or physician.

For patients who are immuno-comprised, video consultations using a solution like Pexip mean that they don’t have to be concerned about infections or illnesses that they might be exposed to outside their home. Video consultations help manage patient flows in ER rooms and aid healthcare practices in effectively managing their time.

Telemedicine also allows health care providers to extend their reach so they can stay competitive in their market. Pexip is interoperable, meaning video sessions are easily accessible regardless of the video platform or infrastructure being used. This makes business practices and patient care more flexible and inclusive.

Pexip facilitated Queensland Health's Virtual Telehealth Clinic

Since 2016, Queensland Health has worked with Pexip to devise and create the Queensland Telehealth Virtual Clinic, a custom developed platform running over Pexip video communications. The Queensland Health Telehealth Virtual Clinic is designed to mirror the real-life scenario of visiting a doctor’s office. 

When the appointment time arrives, patients click on a link sent to them by their consultant and they join a virtual video waiting room from their personal device. There is a dashboard for staff to register and monitor patients and when required, reception transfers them to their virtual consult room or to a secondary waiting room.

The interoperability Pexip offers between video meeting solutions such as Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Poly, and other standards-based video conferencing meant that Queensland Health didn’t have to replace its existing infrastructure. Instead, it could use Pexip to scale, build, and improve upon its existing investments. This practical implementation of Pexip’s telehealth products has brought about dramatic changes for doctors and patients alike.

“Telehealth is not always appropriate but there are many situations where it is, saving time and cost for doctors, patients & Queensland Health. Over the last couple of decades, perhaps 1-2% of outpatient consultations in Queensland have been via telehealth.

While COVID-19 has accelerated that demand and forced the department to operate differently, we are hopeful that people will continue to use the service on a long-term basis. Pexip has supported our transformation, moving telehealth from the hospital to the home."

- Representative of Queensland Health

Embracing the future of work with video

The same video conferencing application used clinically for telehealth visits can also be used for administrative purposes. As healthcare organizations embrace modern workplace trends, flexible collaboration tools such as video conferencing ensure that they meet their needs both today and tomorrow.

In today’s world, global workplaces are the norm, and employees are no longer restricted to collaborating with just the people in their immediate vicinity. In order to avoid further spread of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to protect front line workers and patients alike, telemedicine has emerged as the new optimal solution, with the majority of the workforce going into remote mode.

In addition to presenting a great cost-saving opportunity, one of the prominent factors is that employees can now join meetings from any device of their choice, such as a web browser, tablet, phone, or video conferencing unit from anywhere around the world. As organizations adopt new collaboration tools, they also need those tools to work with each other so employees can join meetings in the office or at home.

Many healthcare organizations have a mix of legacy and modern video conferencing technologies and need those solutions to work together. McKinsey recently reported that at least one-third of our day-to-day work could be automated in approximately 60 percent of roles.

And those organizations that are already embracing automation through a hybrid workforce are giving their workers the opportunity to take on more complex and fulfilling tasks — things like creative problem solving, innovation, negotiation, product development, and optimizing workflows. Interoperability is critical to helping organizations simplify their collaboration landscape and drive adoption of their video investments.

How St. Antonius Hospital utilizes the power of video conferencing

St. Antonius Hospital has been a frontrunner in using video conferencing technology and other telehealth tools for many years. The hospital is an institution in the Netherlands, and has been pushing the bar for healthcare since 1910. With eight healthcare locations across the Utrecht region of the Netherlands, the organization uses video conferencing to conduct both internal meetings and external communication with other hospitals, as well as to conduct virtual patient consultations.

Internal or administrative use

Virtual Meeting Rooms (VMRs) provide flexibility and simplify communications.Instead of room-to-room calling, St. Antonius adopted virtual meeting rooms (VMRs) for almost every medical discipline, eliminating a lot of confusion and driving steady usage of video conferencing.

Having VMRs always available for both ad hoc and planned meetings has helped the organization meet changing workplace needs such as the growth of personal devices, as well as the need for guest users and inter-hospital communications. VMRs also enable doctors to be virtually present during change-of-shifts, since they can use their iPad at home, instead of needing to drive to a physical hospital.

External or patient communication

St. Antonius Hospital also uses video conferencing to offer patients virtual consultations. This makes a world of difference to patients -- it is convenient, cost-effective, and comfortable. Video conferencing also helps in streamlining patient flows on the hospital floor, especially in critical areas such as emergency rooms.

This saves healthcare providers, nurses, and doctors a lot of time and resources, and aids in managing their stress more effectively. Video consultations are usually short and to the point, so healthcare providers can optimally use their time without overextending themselves.

Modernizing legacy infrastructure with Pexip

St. Antonius recently upgraded its legacy, self-hosted infrastructure to cloud registrations on the Pexip service for more than 190 physical video conferencing rooms. By modernizing this infrastructure, the hospital can drive more cost savings, provide a more flexible video conferencing experience for users, and adapt...