Telemedicine Adding to Our Humanity?
There was a recent article suggesting that telemedicine may actually be making healthcare more human. Dr. Kenneth Hughes offers online consultations to minimize Covid risk and spread and also performs any nonessential followup virtually as well. This certainly makes things more convenient for the patients and limits travel and wait times at the office. Dr. Hughes is not sure it is necessarily more personal or adding to humanity, but it has become essential in the coronavirus age.
The author of the article was he himself a patient and enjoyed being in his own home, not in a gown, in his universe when communicating with the doctor. He felt that as the geography of the interaction had been altered, he felt more attentive and receptive to the information being communicated. Perhaps this is true as it may reduce anxiety in this virtual medium.
