Telemedicine for all, is it possible?

When we talk about telemedicine, we are not talking about anything new, it goes beyond a fad. It is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) at the service of health. It has been used for more than 30 years, but it had remained like Cinderella, until the pandemic placed the glass slipper on it, and it also showed us that the World Health Organization paragraph that reads ...when the distance is an obstacle... it is not necessarily so, since we use this powerful care modality even when the patient lives next to the assistance center.

If we reflect a little, we will see that telemedicine has great potential, and it came to show us that its scope goes far beyond the office's Wi-Fi network. The advances in technological development place increasingly friendly and intuitive platforms within our reach, in the face of a population that has a massive consumption of digital tools for many daily activities, and that the use of smart devices in corners, even where it is not, is increasingly common. there are places of health care. The scope of internet coverage is growing more and more, at greater speed, expansion and lower cost than hospital constructions, without leaving behind the advent of 5G or even satellite signal as a massive reality not very far away.

Faced with this live, real, and fully developing panorama, at speeds that we did not even suspect, we only have to ask ourselves, do we really believe that the face-to-face health system will return as we knew it before the pandemic?

Thinking like this is not only naive, but even petty, since it implies returning to the endless lines of patients waiting for an appointment for months, specialized professionals overcrowded with functions and Dantesque schedules that in the end accelerate the famous burnout syndrome that many health workers present, but that we limit the right to health only to those who can travel to hospitals.

Is it what our health systems, patients and professionals need?

The vision is a hybrid health system, where both modalities complement each other and articulate to provide more and better to thousands, with the patient-centric goal of Hippocrates, thus making health (and not disease), the true right of everyone! ...and they lived happily ever after... Let's join forces and so on together.

#hagamosvirallasalud