Have you ever had a health problem then you wanted to consult doctors but it took you a month to book? Or you have to wait forever at the government hospital. Besides, it is difficult for the elderly who need to go to the hospital regularly. This does not include the frustration of transportation. Luckily, the current technology helps us to eliminate those problems. What is this technology? How useful is it? Let’s find out. 

Online medical consult service, the new option to reach the medical services

Tele-consultation is applied to the medical services via high-speed internet which can send necessary medical information whether letters, pictures, and voices to doctors from a faraway land. For example, doctors or public health staff from rural can contact and consult with specialists to get proper medication or general people can reach and consult via video call. This helps patients who have a limited time, distance, or places to talk and discuss with doctors 
 

What are the pros of online doctors? 

• Help clients/ patients seek remote consultation immediately. This expands the service coverage from the hospital.
  
  
• Help reduce the cost of healthcare and increase the curing efficiency because of coordination of doctors between hospitals. Also, help reduce transportation of staff and admit time at the hospitals.
  
  
• Increase the convenience of patients/clients because it does not require traveling which could reduce the stress from traveling
  
  
• Increase a follow-up efficiency for those chronic patients 
  
  
• Increase a follow-up efficiency for those chronic patients 
  

What are the services of online medical consult service?

1. Consultation

• Health consultation by talking and getting the symptoms via video calls to provide a proper advice

2. Monitoring

• Installation of equipment for health monitoring. In case any abnormality happens, the alert system will notify 

3. Health advice provision

• Health advice asking services or disease consultation. Clients or patients can look for information in the system or have an online consultation with specialists.

4. Medical learning system

• Be a learning system for doctors or specialists. The system will collect information and those who in-need can search or publish the useful data for educational purposes.

Online medical consultation around the globe

Tele-consultation is popular among many countries. The big service provider in the USA is Teledoc via video call with over 20,000,000 accounts and more than 10,000 client companies. Babylon Health in the UK and Ada Health from Germany have already introduced AI to help analyze a basic symptom of the clients before forwarding video calls with doctors. Ping An Group in China created Ping An Good Doctor which is a mobile application for patients to find a doctor for online consulting and making a reservation with basic questions with AI. If medicines or medical products are needed, delivery services are provided. 

Thailand and online medical consulting services

High-speed internet for online medical services policy was announced by the government in order to increase a chance to reach a public service. This project will start from 9 provinces and will be expanded within 3 years. This helps patients to get a service from the nearest hospital and finally, a direct treatment will be shared soon. Doctors can give advice via video call, prescribe and directly send the medicines to the patient’s home.

For the business sector, online medical consulting service is growing with more clients whether leading hospitals or applications in order to provide long-distance service. SCB has collaborated with a partner to introduce these online medical consulting services which you can download via SCB Easy application at the “Covid-19 Center & Loan Relief Measures” then “Tele-Consultation service”

Regarding the Covid-19 outbreak, online medical consultation customers are increasing and rising sharply around the world to reduce the unnecessary attending the hospital and enhance a chance for online consultation. Moreover, it can help filter and prevent a low-risk person from unnecessary going out of their home, and also the 14 self-quarantine patients. Besides, panic reduction and stress release for those who are afraid of Covid-19 is another factor. Thus, these online medical consulting services will be a new normal for world medical utility.

Reference

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/telemedicine-%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%AD-teeraphol-ambhai

http://saranukromthai.or.th/sub/book/book.php?book=25&chap=8&page=t25-8-infodetail04.html

https://techsauce.co/tech-and-biz/covid19-the-real-game-changer-of-telemedicine

http://www.bangkokhealth.com/index.php/health/health-general/general-health/2146-telemedicine.html

https://www.matichonweekly.com/hot-news/article_246399

https://www.wha-industrialestate.com/th/media-activities/articles/3168/telemedicine