Primary care focuses on providing preventive care and treatment for a wide range of acute and chronic health complications. It requires your provider to work closely with you to optimize your general health. On-site primary care services are essential, but remotely receiving advanced primary care can come with more benefits.
At Soffer Health Institute, Ariel Soffer MD, FACC leads a team of dedicated medical professionals to offer diagnostic and preventive health care services, both on-site and virtually through telemedicine. Thanks to technology, you can now directly access your provider through video chat, phone, or popular app technologies for your condition. This is how you can receive primary care remotely.
What is Telemedicine?
It is a way of receiving healthcare through digital devices, mainly through video conferencing. However, other means such as phones and emails can also be used. It can be used to:
- Assess if an in-office treatment is needed.
- Provide medical care and assessment for minor infections. However, research shows that telecommunication can also work for severe medical conditions.
- Offer several therapies, such as physical and speech therapies.
- Prescribe medications or renew prescriptions.
Remotely offering primary care can help in situations where physical distancing is needed or where a patient cannot visit the office in person. Telemedicine is an option for ongoing treatments and works well for most conditions that do not require laboratory tests.
Benefits of Telemedicine
It has improved access to health care. It is more comfortable even for people with disabilities to receive primary care without visiting the office. All populations, including the elderly and those in geographically isolated places, can also get primary care. Also, primary care requires regular visits and checkups, which can be challenging for in-person visits. However, with telemedicine, it is easier to have regular meetings with your doctor.
It is a convenient way of receiving primary care. Telemedicine allows you to access your provider in the comfort of your home. It also means that you don’t have to take time off or make childcare arrangements. It also boosts your confidence as you receive the care in the privacy of your own home.
It helps to control infectious illnesses. Telemedicine is a perfect way to reduce the exposure of germs, bacteria, or viruses for contagious diseases for everyone, especially chronically ill patients, pregnant women, and the elderly.
It is a gateway for better assessment. Through telemedicine, your provider is better positioned to observe you and relate it to the information you are providing. Unlike in-office visits where your doctor cannot see your surrounding environment, they can generate clues about your condition. For example, specific allergies and your ability to take care of yourself can be learned from your surroundings.
It makes family connections easy. In cases where you are required to have a family member during a consultation, it can be not easy if they don’t live with you. However, with telemedicine, they can just be looped in on the virtual meeting despite their geographical locations.
To sum it up, telemedicine is a convenient way to receive primary care remotely. If you cannot go to the office or prefer to stay at home, this is the way to go. If you are anxious about catching infectious diseases such as Covid-19, it’s better to go for telemedicine. The team at Soffer Health Institute can help you learn more about this remote care.