Telehealth Vs Telemedicine - What Distinguishes The Two?

The ongoing global pandemic stimulated a swift revolution in terms of how patients access various aspects of healthcare. With healthcare software solutions becoming more and more mainstream, it has given rise to a number of buzzwords and technical jargon that tends to get jumbled in usage. 

A common confusion that one hears often is between the terms telehealth and telemedicine. Though they are related, you cannot consider them synonymous with each other. It’s important for care professionals to have a clear understanding of the terms in order to enhance the delivery of care.

What is Telehealth?

It takes into account a wide array of custom healthcare software, leveraging telecommunication solutions and electronic information to offer public health & health administration, healthcare services as well as provider-centric education. Under the gamut of telehealth, you get remote services such as health education, remote monitoring, telemedicine, provider-to-provider communication, prescription delivery, physician training, and so on. Facilities are increasingly opting for healthcare software development to take advantage of these services.

Some major applications of Telehealth:

To tackle the scarcity of primary care doctors and specialists- Telehealth is empowering patients at minor and resource-scarce care facilities to have recourse to specialists who are located at bigger hospitals and institutes. For instance, telehealth is being leveraged to treat rural communities and underserved regions as well as for prison populations to expand the reach of healthcare as much as possible.

To serve in training and medical education – Several institutes offer continuing healthcare education by means of a range of telehealth solutions. As physicians have hectic daily schedules they are more and more embracing mobile and online courses to remain up-to-date in their MOC and CME requirements and to meet the requirements of their state and medical board.  

To offer valuable patient engagement- Thanks to telehealth solutions, patients have begun to assume responsibility for their physical health. Patients are being empowered by health management apps and other healthcare software solutions, educational videos, online support communities, and more.

To facilitate provider-to-provider communication- Part of providing healthcare involves the possibility of streamlined communication among care providers. Several telehealth technologies are being used among different care teams to disburse information seamlessly and bring in much-needed collaboration while treating patients.  

What is Telemedicine?

Being a subdivision of telehealth, telemedicine exclusively deals with offering clinical healthcare remotely.  It covers the usage of medical software solutions and electronic communications that are used to offer clinical services without the need for face-to-face meetings. It is mostly leveraged for chronic care management, medication management, post-operative care, and follow-up visits.

The primary aim of telemedicine is to provide a means by which healthcare becomes more cost-effective and accessible. Doctors are able to carry out far more appointments despite not needing to take on added staff or investing in a more spacious office. Patients who ordinarily would not have had sufficient access to care facilities owing to time, distance and money constraints, can now gain access to healthcare from the comfort of their homes.

What Distinguishes Telemedicine from Telehealth?

The key distinction between the services comes down to the fact that while telemedicine solely takes into account online clinical services, telehealth is an umbrella term that covers online clinical as well as non-clinical services. Within online non-clinical services, you have provider-to-provider consultation, administrative meetings, provider training, continuing medical education, and so on.

Thanks to its enhanced accessibility and cost and time-effective nature, medical software solutions used in both telemedicine and telehealth are transforming the healthcare sector. Connect now with a leading healthcare software solutions provider like Ivan Infotech to know more!