Elderly are people who have become too old and have many difficulties in leading their day to day lives. Most of the elderly today suffer from hearing loss, loss of vision, loss of memory, physical disability and several more problems. Also, they are very weak and even if they recover from any disability, they still are going to be weak.
Telemedicine is a new technology that uses communication and medical information for the treatment of patients. The medical information related to the patient can be transferred through communication devices between two medical professionals or from doctor to patient through telemedicine devices.
Telemedicine has been found very useful when it comes to the elderly. In fact, it is advancing tremendously in this particular area of medicine where several different types of telemeds are being developed to cater to the seniors and the elderly. With the rise in baby boomer population in the near future the demand for telemeds is only going to increase further. Elderly people need help with several things in their day to day life. Most of them even lose their physical ability completely in an advanced old age. At this time telemeds can be very helpful for them in many different ways.
Telemedicine can be used for psychiatric consultations, rehabilitation, cardiology, internal medicine pediatrics, geriatrics, gynecology and obstetrics. Telemedicine also can measure the patient’s heartbeat and other vital statistics required for immediate diagnosis through telemedical equipment.
However, this is not like faxing the records or equivalent; instead the transfer of information happens in real time environment. People can transfer medical information using voice, text and video messages and this transfer can happen between two remote locations. The new technology is beneficial because patients can reach medical faculties very easily without depending on hospital attendance.
What are the benefits of telemedicine for the elderly people? Telemedicine is beneficial for the elderly because they are dependant people who need constant care and in the absence of care, anything can happen to them.
Today, there are several assistive devices that are being made for the elderly that also have telemedicine devices included and incorporated in them. These devices are capable of keeping a constant tab on the elderly person’s health and sends warning signals when there is a need for concern. Some examples of such assistive devices are the wheelchair with telemedicine capacities and advanced mobility. These wheelchairs can measure the patient’s heart beat, blood pressure and other symptoms by using some simple technology.
Source by Ishan Goradiya