Telemedicine for Obesity Patients
In this essay, telemedicine technology in relation, obese patients will be discussed. A clear definition of the meaning of telemedicine will be provided. Additionally, this paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of telemedicine in healthcare organizations. The reason as to why some healthcare providers are reluctant to use and adopt telemedicine will also be discussed. The above discussion of telemedicine technology will be done by discussing several literature and evidence that relate to the application and adoption of telemedicine technology by health systems. Finally, the paper will also discuss the ethical issues involved with the use of telemedicine. As mentioned earlier, telemedicine will be discussed in relation to obesity management. Therefore, the paper will also discuss the prevalence of obesity among the population in the UK and other several nations like the United States.
According to Delgoshaei, Mobinizadeh, Mojdekar, Afzal, Arabloo & Mohamadi (2017), telemedicine is a broader term in health information technology that consists of procedures and approaches of transmitting medical information from healthcare providers to the patients through electronic devices such as computer and smartphones to patients with the aim of improving the health status and outcomes of the patients. Therefore, telemedicine technology aims at passing medical information to patients wherever they without having to necessarily move to the hospital for the same services. Through telemedicine, healthcare providers are now able to consult with patients while they are at their homes using HIPAA compliant video-conferencing tools. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The reason for choosing to write about telemedicine in relation to obese patients in this paper is because of the increasing number of obese people in the country as well as the increasing cost of managing the situation in the country. Additionally, the outbreak of COVID-19 has also influenced me in choosing to write on telemedicine as at this time, all the health care organizations are overwhelmed by the dangers of the epidemic. Additionally, the movement of people has also been restricted, and therefore, patients with other health conditions like obesity may be forgotten. Fortunately, telemedicine technology has been proven to be very effective in connecting health care providers with patients back at home and monitoring their situations. Obesity is a complex condition that involves an excess accumulation of body fats. The condition has become not only a cosmetic concern but also a big medical problem (Scheelbeek, Cornelsen, Marteau, Jebb & Smith, 2019). This is because obesity increases the risk of other common infections and health problems in patients such as high blood pressure, heart disease, certain types of cancer and diabetes. According to data from Health Survey For England (HSE) which was done in 2018, 31% of United Kingdom adult citizens have been recognised to be clinically obese with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30.63%. There has been the highest number of people diagnosed with obesity. According to data from NHS, the number of obese adults have been growing since 2014. In the year 2016/17, 711,000 hospital admissions were related to obesity condition. This represented an increase of 15% from 2015/2016 when obesity related admissions in all hospitals were 617, 000. In 2017, the number of adults classified as obese in United Kingdom were 29% which represented an increase of 3% from 2016. The number of children classified as obese in 2017 was 20%, and the NHS indicated that the prevalence of obese children was more than twice in deprived areas than areas that were less deprived. According to a study done by Ells, Hancock, Copley, Mead, Dinsdale, Kinra & Rutter (2015), the prevalence of obesity has been increasing in United Kingdom at a high rate especially for the children. The study cited increased consumption of foods with more calories as a result of increased prices of commodities in the country.
A similar study done by Scheelbeek et al (2019) found out that the prevalence of obesity was increasing in UK as a result of 20% increase of price of commodities. Intentionally, evidence show that increased prevalence of obesity condition has resulted to increased risk of ill health (Hales, Fryar, Carroll, Freedman & Ogden, 2018 p. 632). Therefore, there is need to raise awareness of the severe obesity condition by supporting prevention programs and providing adequate treatment to those who have already been affected.
The benefits of healthcare technologies in dealing with obesity condition has been obvious in the last few years. However, looking how healthcare technologies are applied to deal with many other conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure, there is much to do to use healthcare technology to deal with the affected. Technology leads to independence and gives caregivers a piece of mind as they do not have to keep on travelling to meet with the patients. Technology in health care has led to increased home treatment of patients. Therefore, health care providers do not have to spend many hours in hospital like before, and also patients do not need to visit healthcare facilities like before. Healthcare technology has also reduced pressure on healthcare providers and reduced the waiting time of patients as now few patients visit the hospital. Telemedicine is one of the newest healthcare technologies that has been proved to be effective in helping patients with different conditions. According to Biery, Bond, Smith, LeClair & Foster (2015), telemedicine has improved the physician-outpatient relationship as well as teaching. Therefore, its importance has already been evident in the health system.
Many studies have been done on the use of telemedicine in the health care systems. However, the studies are conflicting regarding the impact telemedicine has had on both the patients and health care providers. First healthcare providers have had varying perception and knowledge of telemedicine technology. A study done by Ayatollahi, Sarabi & Langarizadeh (2015) on the knowledge and perception of Iran clinicians. The study was carried out in form of survey by providing the participants with five-point Likert-scale questions. The study include 532 clinicians. The researchers of this study showed that 96.1% of the participants had little knowledge on telemedicine. However, the clinicians who participated in this study perceived that telemedicine had moderate benefits and low disadvantages. Based on the results of the study, the patients’ perception on telemedicine was mainly influenced by their limited knowledge on the technology. The study therefore, concluded that there was need to provide health care professional with more information on new technologies like telemedicine in order to gain realistic perception from them.
A similar study by Potter, Natafgi, Ullrich & MacKinney (2016) examined the perceptions of benefits of telemedicine in rural communities. The study used both survey and interviews to understand the perception of telemedicine on rural communities. Many respondents believed that telemedicine improved the quality of health care and access to people living in remote areas. The reviews collected using interviews revealed that telemedicine technology improved the reputation of many rural hospitals through enhanced patients’ outcomes as a result of patients being close to their caregivers as well as increased awareness of the community on the hospital’s services. The study therefore concluded that telemedicine technology changes the perception of rural communities on local health care facilities, reduce the tendency of patients to seek services from more urbanized hospitals and assist local hospitals participate in creation of innovative care models.
Another study done by Delgoshaei, Mobinizadeh, Mojdekar, Afzal, Arabloo & Mohamadi (2017) sought to investigate the cost effectiveness of telemedicine interventions in various specialites. The study reviewed twenty-one studies that had been done on the cost-effectiveness of the telemedicine intervention. Most of the studies that the researchers reviewed revealed that telemedicine was cost effective in major medical fields like cardiology, but the studies could not confirm of telemedicine technology had a positive impact on dermatology medical fields. This was a good example that telemedicine has been helpful in deal with major medical problems. Obesity in this case is not an exception and as the cases of obesity patients keep on increasing, telemedicine will be useful in managing its costs.
Good (2017) did a study which aimed to establish the benefits and drawbacks of telemedicine technology on healthcare providers and patients. The study stated that telemedicine has assisted care providers to provide care more efficiently. Telemedicine has also made diagnosis and treatment of diseases more easier for the providers due to use of electronic medical records like EHR, AI diagnosis devices as well as medical streaming devices, which allows providers to monitor patients while at their homes. Providers have also benefited from increased technology as nurses and physicians are able to attend to more patients while maintaining HIPAA compliance. The study show that patients have benefitted from telemedicine in the sense that they are able to obtain healthcare services without having to travel to hospitals, avoid missing work due to doctor’s consultations and now childcare and eldercare challenges have been solved by telemedicine as they can access it through telemedicine.
Despite the benefits of telemedicine to both care providers and patients, the study revealed that telemedicine technology has some disadvantages. Some of the drawbacks of telemedicine mentioned in the study include increased mismanagement of patients due to reduced face-to face consultations, the technology is expensive, and also there has been unclear policies concerning healthcare laws, reimbursement policies and privacy protection.
According to study by Batsis, Pletcher & Stahl, (2017), telemedicine has been found to be an effective intervention for many health problems and therefore health care providers should recommend it to be used as an intervention for obesity especially for older people. Another study done on the use of telemedicine on deal with obesity found out that the technology was effective in assisting healthcare providers in diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients remotely (Houser, Reena Joseph, Puro & Burke, 2019). A similar study done by DietDemand (2019) found out that telemedicine for patient-doctor weight loss improved the success rate of how the obese patients were able to cut off their weight.
Telemedicine has several ethical considerations like any other health care technology. Research shows that ethical issues in telemedicine technology are examined from various aspects which include parent’s and family’s satisfaction with the technology, informed consent, data security and confidentiality and the technology itself. Therefore, health care providers need to abide to ethical rules on the telemedicine so that they can provide better services to the patients using the technology. Therefore, paying adequate attention on ethical issues of the technology would guarantee a safer application of its services.
In conclusion, telemedicine seems to have many benefits not only to health providers but also the patients. Caregivers are able to diagnose, offer treatment and monitor patients while at their homes. Although in the first telemedicine technology has faced objection from clinicians due to lack of knowledge on the technology, currently many health providers have understood how the technology is used and as a result they are readily embracing it to deal with different health problems. Telemedicine has been found to be effective especially when dealing with cardiology health problems. Therefore, a condition like obesity which has been increasing in UK can be easily managed if telemedicine is appropriately used taking into consideration all its ethical issues.
References
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