The limits of telemedicine: on the rise amid coronavirus pandemic, doctors expect it to continue, but as adjunct to face-to-face consultations
- Telemedicine – evaluating patients remotely by phone or video conferencing – has become more popular in lockdowns, providing a new type of doctor’s ‘visit’
- Critics of telemedicine say the key to the doctor-patient relationship has always been the human touch to help diagnosis and that this is still essential
Private medical clinic waiting rooms across Hong Kong have been relatively empty in the past few months as people steer clear of what they see as a potentially dangerous spot to linger. What’s more, anyone with a fever, even a mild one, has not been permitted to enter a clinic and has instead been sent to a hospital.
This has pushed private practices, which are keen to continue serving their patients, towards telemedicine – in which patients consult a doctor and receive diagnoses remotely.
Dr Nichola Salmond at Optimal Family Health in Central began offering consultations by teleconferencing app Zoom in mid-March and sees a few patients a day this way. She says it meets regulations and is effective for those with straightforward conditions or requests for repeat prescriptions, but can be challenging in cases that require an up-close look at a problem.
Take the patient with suspected tonsillitis who she saw by video consultation because the teenager had a fever and could not come to the clinic.