Telepathology is changing the medical industry, and as such, your clinic should know what it’s all about. Here’s a quick guide to this new solution.
What Is Telepathology?
For those who are unaware of what this term means, it simply refers to the capability of practicing pathology from a remote location. To clarify, medical professionals are able to use it for research, diagnosis, and educational purposes.
Since this process can help connect people in distant locations with medical professionals, it allows those who live in isolated areas to receive greater levels of medical care than they would otherwise. To elaborate on its educational utility, it’s entirely possible for students to shadow a doctor while they interact with a patient through telepathology.
What Type of Providers Can Use It?
Virtually any type of healthcare provider is able to take advantage of this process. This includes private practices, clinics, and hospitals.
However, educational facilities, such as universities and primary schools, are also able to leverage the benefits that it provides. As you might expect, telepathology is highly useful for research institutions.
Not only does it streamline the entire process, but it also allows for more efficient and accurate recordkeeping.
What Systems Are Required?
In order to integrate telepathology appropriately, you’ll need to utilize a handful of systems. This will allow you to have an option at your disposal for any type of scenario that may arise.
Listed below are the three primary systems to consider.
Real-Time Systems
As the name suggests, a real-time system allows medical professionals to operate machinery from a remote location in order to achieve an accurate diagnosis or perform a procedure. More specifically, the pathologist can assist in controlling a robotic microscope when working with a patient.
These microscopes also come integrated with microphones, which allows the medical professional to consistently communicate with the patient.
These microscopes record the entire interaction and transmit encrypted video footage directly to the computer of the pathologist. Real-time systems are renowned for both their convenience and efficacy when it comes to patient treatment.
Image-Based Systems
It should come as no surprise that image-based systems make use of static images instead of real-time video footage. But, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t a reliable option to integrate within your medical procedures.
Interestingly, this type of technology has been around for decades. This means that those who begin to use image-based systems within telepathology should have no issue adjusting.
They are also relatively inexpensive to implement compared to other methods.
Virtual Slide Systems
This type of system allows medical professionals to use the Internet in order to view images. The main benefit of a virtual slide system is that these images are accessible from any location that has an Internet connection.
This means that you are able to achieve highly accurate diagnostic results virtually anywhere. This factor alone is what makes it such an enticing option.
What Primary Benefits Does Telepathology Have?
The integration of telepathology comes with a number of different benefits. These can have a notably positive impact on your entire facility.
Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent.
Convenience
It simply cannot be overlooked that telepathology comes with a high level of convenience for everyone involved. As previously mentioned, you can use different telepathology systems to provide professional care from a remote location, something that softens the requirements for an accurate diagnosis.
The patient will also find it highly convenient, as many people sometimes avoid seeking medical assistance due to how far away a hospital or clinic is located. In the past, these individuals may have neglected to seek medical treatment entirely.
Accuracy
Previously, some medical professionals were initially skeptical about the accuracy of telepathology. Today, however, the systems that have been put into place have consistently proven that it is entirely possible to achieve highly accurate results.
So, there is no longer a definitive need to use former procedures during every interaction a medical professional has with a client. As more and more research facilities begin to utilize telepathology, the level of accuracy will only increase.
Efficiency
Since this process comes with a considerable level of accuracy and convenience, it allows medical facilities to operate far more efficiently. To put this into perspective, let’s assume that a doctor can only handle 20 patients within a single day through traditional methods.
The use of telepathology is highly likely to double or triple the number of patients that they can manage within the same time period. Additionally, this can be achieved without sacrificing the quality of the interaction that the patient has with the medical professional.
This directly translates into better performance for the practice as a whole and is something to keep in mind if you’re on the fence about whether or not you should integrate the systems into your facility.
Implementing Telepathology Can Seem Complicated
Fortunately, it’s not as difficult to do so as you might think. Keep the above information in mind when making your decision to ensure that you integrate telepathology as seamlessly as possible.
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