A few medical centers have used whitelabelled telemedicine to provide a variety of labor and delivery services. Possibilities include the use of videoconferencing to replace in-person visits, introducing at-home monitoring, and allowing consulting with distant specialists, such as maternal-fetal medicine experts, during the prenatal period. Telemedicine has been employed in the postoperative period to allow for early postpartum follow-up visits and access to lactation experts. Telemedicine can data that support mental health care during pregnancy and after delivery.
Even though Telemedicine has a variety of applications in obstetrics, its adoption has been slow. High initial expenses, poor internet connection in rural locations, and variable reimbursement rules among state Medicaid programs and individual insurance plans are all limiting considerations.
Accessibility to these innovations during pregnancy will be primarily determined by federal and provincial telemedicine reimbursement decisions. Only a few state Medicaid programs reimburse for telemedicine service provided to a patient’s home, limiting the use of telemedicine to treat pregnant Medicaid patients.
Development of modeling techniques for financing the use of telemedicine in pregnancy, investment opportunities in broadband, research projects guiding maternal and neonatal outcomes, and reimbursement willingness to providers for patient care through a telemedicine console will all likely contribute to the program’s growth.
Although global countries show an increased rate of using telemedicine during the pregnancy period, in India people usually stand out and won’t go for Telemedicine doctors. Generally when technology is increasing people tend to have
lesser trust in it but regardless of facts, Telemedicine benefits are more to any individual.
Telemedicine is one industry that has succeeded in piquing the business sector’s attention and encouraging them to participate actively in public health programs. Narayana Hrudayalaya, Apollo Telehealth Ventures, Asian Heart Foundation, Escorts Heart Institution, Amrita Institute of Medical Technologies, and Aravind Vision Care are among some of the current significant Indian private sector players in telemedicine. They are supported by the federal and state governments, as well as organizations such as ISRO, who provide them with relevant and up-to-date technology.
So, why not step forward for bringing Telemedicine into pregnancy
Telemedicine can provide a wide range of gestation treatments. Telemedicine has been used for novel pregnancy
and early care, at-home surveillance of illnesses such as diabetes and pressure, and phone/video consultations with professionals (i.e. high-risk obstetricians, lactation consultants, mental healthcare platforms providers)
Pregnancy-related services are underutilized. KFF examined telemedicine utilization in the following aspects of perinatal mortality care: guidance of normal and slightly elevated pregnancies, mental illnesses risks of pregnancy, and breastfeeding services, using a snippet of ambulatory health claims of childbearing patients participating in large employer plans. The vast majority of telehealth consultations took place over the phone, with only a small percentage taking place online. Telemedicine assertions included consultations for breastfeeding issues, postnatal mood disturbances, postpartum adoption, and regular prenatal care. These estimates it does not include patients who can afford private, and they might not reflect treatments delivered under consolidated financing for prenatal care.
All through pregnancy, conventional prenatal care models encourage up to 14 in-person visits2. This necessitates a large amount of travel time as well as time out of work or home responsibilities. Only a few prenatal visits, such as ultrasound imaging, laboratory testing, and vaccines, necessitate in-person treatment. Many visits are used to provide patients with information, answer concerns, and evaluate maternal and fetal vitals, which could be conducted at home if the resources were provided.
Telemedicine can also help high-risk pregnancies, especially through the use of at-home monitoring for high blood pressure or hypertension, which would be subsequently communicated to their doctors. Patients prefer at-home monitoring, according to studies, since it enables them to participate actively in medical care and increases self-efficacy. For diabetic patients, identified as high blood glucose monitoring may lead to fewer visits to diabetes experts and increased health-related quality of life. Any use
of telemedicine for sugar levels monitoring was as beneficial as basic treatment in attaining glucose tolerance in pregnancy, according to an analysis of seven trials. Several studies of women during pregnancy found that telemedicine and standard care had similar maternal health.
Managing hypertension usually necessitates regular in-person visits. 3 Individuals can monitor their blood pressure at home using telemedicine, and the findings are relayed to their clinicians, who could also decide whether they need some in evaluation. The at-home blood pressure transducer was considered adequate in identifying blood pressure increases and acceptable to most individuals in two investigations of women with hypertension during pregnancy (both prenatal and postpartum). More study is needed to compare telemedicine with conventional in-person approaches for cardiovascular risk and perinatal mortality.
Specialists, particularly nurturing medicine doctors (MFMs), are scarce in several rural locations (high-risk obstetricians). Individuals and their local prenatal care providers can use telemedicine to teleconference with an MFM or other specialist instead of traveling to see them again person. With this technology, experts may not only analyze patients remotely and offer management approaches, but they can also study ultrasound imagery while a remote technician performs the test. Patients can also connect with genetic counselors, fetal cardiologists, even diabetes instructors via telemedicine.
Remote consultations are adjusted and, agreeable to patients, and can save patients time and money on trips, according to assessments of these systems. Patients who might otherwise forego specialty care owing to a lack of accessibility in their neighborhoods may benefit from telemedicine. Having specialists available via telemedicine may help motivate local doctors to continue caring for their high-risk individuals while also allowing more deliveries to take place safely in hospitals in the area.
Postpartum care is essential for managing the patient’s personal and psychological well-being following delivery, along with nursing problems, contraception needs, birth spacing, and any ongoing chronic disease treatment. The postpartum trimester, on the other hand, is frequently disregarded. Patients are frequently scheduled for a postpartum checkup six weeks after giving birth, even though complications may occur before that anyway.
Telemedicine could be used in pregnancy care to solve issues such as smartphone support, improved phone or text communications with clinicians, and even at parameters such as heart rate. Most maternal telemedicine programs include a postpartum telemedicine visit as part of the package. Patients enrolling in MultiCare’s program, for example, see a healthcare professional via selecting participants one week after delivery and their doctor in person at six weeks.
Several telemedicine technologies allow those who are having trouble nursing to connect with doctors and specialists from the comfort of their own home or a nearby telemedicine “hub.” Clients can message professionals (usually International Board Certification Lactation Consultants) and engage in teleconsultation by smartphone or videoconference social platforms like skype, zoom, or WhatsApp video call. This strategy has several advantages over traditional in-person care, including enhanced accessibility, the elimination of travel costs, and the ability to give treatments more quickly, frequently within minutes or hours of whenever the need arises. Virtual visits, on the other hand, might be difficult, especially for individuals with restricted internet and computer proficiency.
Gynecology and Mental Illness:
Many women require mental health treatment while pregnant or after giving birth. Treatment addressing mood disorders, including postpartum depression and anxiety, untreated schizophrenia, trauma, and substance use disorders, could be provided. Along with prenatal care, several medical institutes have started to offer telemedicine mental health services. Through an online platform, patients can see a psychology health professional via teleconferencing to accurately diagnose paranoid schizophrenia.
Conclusion:
Despite its low adoption rate at the moment, telemedicine can be implemented throughout prenatal and postpartum care in a variety of ways. By boosting healthcare like MFMs and mental health practitioners, facilitating at-home surveillance of hypertension and diabetes, and decreasing transportation barriers, these innovations could be particularly effective in resolving rural-urban health disparities in maternity care.
While all these approaches have considerable potential for improving access and reducing maternal/infant health inequities, they face significant implementation hurdles. Furthermore, restricted internet connectivity among moderate and rural people, as well as expensive beginning costs for health institutions, make telemedicine implementation difficult. Expanding telemedicine’s accessibility to more underserved areas could assist improve mother and newborn health outcomes.
Telemedicine overall is very under-rated and it’s not expanding as quickly as some news in the market but thereby it has a tremendous amount of benefits and can solve many of your problems with ease. From pregnancy to fever telemedicine has a big impact on the healthcare industry.
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