Recently I had my first telemedicine session for a regular physical. I was called from my PCPs office initially to schedule an appointment. I was told that a few minutes prior to the scheduled time, I would receive a text message, from my PCP, with a link on my mobile phone. Clicking the link would activate the session.
The appointment time came and went, and I didn’t receive the text message and link I was anticipating. I missed the link which came about thirty minutes past the scheduled time. I called the office later and enquired about my missed appointment. The office manager said the PCP must have been running late; hence the delay in sending the link. Note: there was no voice or text notification updating me of the delay. I rescheduled for another day and told the office manager, I would call a few minutes prior to my appointment time to ensure my session.
I called and was told that the PCP would be about 10-15 minutes late at which point I would receive the link. Had I not called, I probably wouldn’t have known about the delay and missed the text message again. I received the link and activated the video session with my PCP.
Since this was a follow-up, there was not much to be discussed. My PCP wanted to know if I could take a BP reading with my home BP monitor. Unfortunately, it had malfunctioned and with the local pharmacies suspending in-store BP monitor public use due to Covid, I couldn’t get a reading. She asked me to make an appointment for an-person visit for a BP read. The session ended at that point.
While this was a rather simple telemedicine event, it raised the following concerns:
- Timeliness and relevance of communication: text messages will likely be missed by many. Other ways of parallel notifications, such as, automated dialing, buzz notifications, etc., should be used. Maybe in my case it was a functionality lack of the platform. However, this factor could be very critical for emergent cases, and needs to be top of mind.
- Video transmission may not always be the best mode of interaction due to network latency and bandwidth availability, especially in rural areas. The voice call option is always there.
- While the general public may be picking telemedicine and telehealth protocols rapidly, as easy as it may seem to use, up-to-speed training for office managers and support personnel should be prioritized, until they become familiar with the workings of telemedicine.
- The availability and uptime of home health monitoring devices is critical. What would be options where patients don’t have the instruments needed? Would 3rd party services be made available in those instances? In more complex environments, such as, home health care for immobile or sick patients, the functioning and data transmission from these devices to the service provider will become uber important.
- The ease or complexity of interacting with other medical records, such as diagnostics test results, while simultaneously participating in a video chat on a mobile phone. Since real estate is limited, how can user interfaces or record viewing be optimized for these devices?