What Is Telemedicine?

Using Nurx to obtain your birth control or PrEP prescription from the comfort of your own home is a form of telemedicine. But what is telemedicine exactly? To put it simply, it’s any sort of health care services or health care information provided virtually to a patient. Telemedicine is great because it allows a patient to receive medical care without leaving their home, which is perfect for disabled people or those who lack transportation. After all, if you live in a remote rural area, who has time to drive hours into the city just to see a doctor?

Learn more about how telemedicine works and why Nurx is such a prime example of the good this concept can provide to people.

How Telemedicine Works

If you use Nurx to order your birth control, you have a pretty good idea of how telemedicine works. Using Nurx as an example, you log in to the site, answer some questions about yourself, enter your insurance information, and select which brand of birth control pill you’d like. Our seasoned team of medical providers will review your information and then remotely write you a prescription. After this has been completed, your birth control arrives on time and at no extra cost to your door.

This is just one example of how telemedicine can work, however. It’s also great for storing and forwarding patient medical data to other providers, remotely monitoring patients for certain conditions, and providing real-time telehealth visits with a health professional.

What Can Telemedicine Treat?

While Nurx uses telemedicine services to provide safe and affordable access to birth control patches, rings, and more, there are many other applications for this concept. The following are a list of just some of the common conditions a physician can treat and monitor via telehealth:

• Sprains and strains
• Infections
• Allergies
• Diarrhea
• Colds and flu
• Sore throats
• UTIs
• Arthritis pain
• Vomiting
• Rashes

How Common Is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine is a rapidly growing method of receiving health care from the comfort of your home. Current estimates show there are about 200 telemedicine networks, all of which link patients to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and more. In all, they provide a total of 3,500 service sites across the United States. Overall, about half of the hospitals in the United States use a form of telemedicine to provide services to their patients.

But how many people actually use telemedicine? That number is a little harder to calculate with all the various services available. About 1 million people in the United States use a remote cardiac monitor. What’s more, the Veterans Health Administration has provided 300,000 remote health consultations since 2011.

Is Telemedicine Safe?

Not only is telemedicine safe, but it’s actually helped many people receive the urgent medical care they need when they’re unable to physically make it to the doctor. For example, many patients in rural areas might have to drive an hour or more to reach a doctor; telemedicine allows them to see a doctor in just a few minutes.

Telemedicine isn’t just a haphazard science; it’s managed by clinical practices guidelines and the highest technical standards. The field of telemedicine is directed by the American Telemedicine Association, which has produced a wide array of best practices and standards to ensure all practitioners are using telemedicine responsibly.

And in the case of Nurx, telemedicine enables you to get brand-name prescriptions, such as Nikki or Minastrin 24 Fe. This lets you be sexually active without the fear of pregnancy and depending on the method of birth control you select, you may even experience lighter, shorter, and less painful periods.

Benefits of Telemedicine

By now, you’ve probably realized a few of the many benefits of telemedicine on your own. But we’ll sum them up just so you can envision them all at once and see just how revolutionary this field of medicine can be.

Offers Convenient and Affordable Access to Health Care

Not everyone can afford to travel to the doctor and pay for expensive in-person visits. This is especially true for the elderly population, which may be confined to home because of problems with mobility. With telemedicine, these patients can receive care no matter where they are. All they need is a reliable network to connect them to their doctor.

Provides Consults With Specialists

Even if a person can make it to the local doctor, if they live in a remote area, they might not have the specialist they need on staff. For example, if a patient is suffering from a rare form of cancer, the local hospital might not have a seasoned oncologist on staff. Telemedicine can link that patient with the proper specialist to get the care they need.

Increases Patient Engagement

For most patients, going to the doctor is an unpleasant experience they have to do once or twice a year. Because people view the experience as a chore rather than a collaboration, they aren’t engaged in their health. Telemedicine provides a friendlier interface and gives them a better chance to ask the questions they’ve been wondering about.

Offers Monitoring Technology

Routine doctor visits are a great benefit of telemedicine, but they can provide much more than that with monitoring technology. For example, patients with heart problems can wear monitors that record their heartbeat and send the results to a doctor. If there are any abnormalities, the doctor can get in touch to let the patient know to head to the emergency room.

As you can see, telemedicine is pretty much the future of health care. And that’s why Nurx is so proud to be leading the way when it comes to birth control and PrEP.

This blog pro­vides infor­ma­tion about telemed­i­cine, health and related sub­jects. The blog content and any linked materials herein are not intended to be, and should not be con­strued as a substitute for, med­ical or healthcare advice, diagnosis or treatment. Any reader or per­son with a med­ical con­cern should con­sult with an appropriately-licensed physi­cian or other healthcare provider. This blog is provided purely for informational purposes. The views expressed herein are not sponsored by and do not represent the opinions of Nurx™.