Remote diagnoses, digital health monitoring and networked experts: Telemedicine is increasingly finding its way into the healthcare system. Bild der Wissenschaft is dedicated to this development in its August issue. The focus is on the opportunities for patients and medical professionals, but the title topic also highlights the risks of the “distanced concepts”.
The digital change is shaping our world – information and communication technologies have already changed many areas, as is well known – this also applies to medicine and health care. So-called telemedicine is an aspect that has also gained in importance due to the corona crisis. The collective term describes concepts in the areas of diagnostics, therapy and rehabilitation as well as medical advice that are related to physical distances.
In the first article of the four-part title topic “Digital Diagnosis”, the bdw author Frank Frick focuses on the possibilities for professional exchange among medical professionals for the benefit of patients. This concept is also known as “doc2doc” telemedicine. In the context of so-called teleconsultations, specialized doctors at university hospitals can advise their colleagues at regional hospitals thanks to communication technologies. Conversely, medical research can also benefit from practical experience.
Potential and critical questions
In the following article, Frick reports on how telemedicine is used in dermatology in particular: Patients can take photos of suspicious areas of skin with their smartphones and send them to a doctor for diagnosis. This saves you the journey and long waiting times. In the article “Remote Diagnosis”, the author also reports on how artificial intelligence can support dermatologists in their work.
Subsequently, the bdw author Susanne Donner deals with the use of telemedicine in the care of heart patients. It has been shown that remote home monitoring can save lives for patients with heart disease. Devices send measured data directly to medical centers and treating doctors. For the first time, such procedures will become a cash benefit this year.
But despite all the advantages for patients and doctors, telemedicine also raises critical questions: Isn’t there a lack of important personal contact? And don’t hacker attacks on telemedicine centers threaten data security? The medical ethicist Arne Manzeschke from the Evangelical University of Nuremberg answers these and other questions in an interview.
You will find the title topic “Digital Diagnosis” in the August issue of bild der Wissenschaft, which will be available in stores from July 20th.