The popularity of the telehealth sector has increasing day by day. Most people have shifted from traditional treatment to modern treatment for healthcare with the help of telehealth in recent years. Telecardiology is one of the many doors that telehealth has opened in the world of medicine.
The need for telecardiology is urgent because unforeseen events like severe weather, pandemic, political turmoil, or isolated places might cause treatment to be administered with unheard-of delays.
Patients who are dealing with heart disease require quick medical attention more frequently in order to keep their illnesses from getting worse. There are some examples of illnesses that necessitate constant and frequent hospital visits like endocarditis, Chest discomfort, Arrhythmias, strokes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. As people get older, routine cardiac exams are also thought vital. Healthcare delivery can be made possible using telecardiology in a cost-effective and reliable manner. Let’s see what Telecardiology is.
What is Telecardiology?
Telecardiology is the part of modern medical practice that deals with diagnosing and treating heart problems at a distance with the help of telecommunications. It covers abrupt cardiac arrest, Arrhythmias, congestive cardiac failure, and both chronic and acute coronary heart disease.
In this instance, doctors and other healthcare professionals use electrocardiographic data that is remotely relayed in real-time for expert interpretation. People who live in rural areas can now obtain specialized care. In order to accomplish this, wireless or satellite networks may now be set up more easily and affordably thanks to advances in technology.
No matter where they are in the world, patients can connect with healthcare providers because of this health model. The majority of hospital telecardiology teams have a network of colleagues that assist them in managing these patients on a global scale.
How Telecardiology Has Changed the Medical Industry
In the United States alone, there are roughly 80,500 heart attacks per year, and 1 in 5 of these attacks happen when the victim is unaware. In Europe, cardiovascular disorders are the leading cause of death for 50% of the population. These are significant numbers that highlight the urgent need to give heart health top attention.
By the start of the pandemic, hospitals were overrun with COVID-19 patients. Heart disease patients, or those with any other illness for that matter, lost priority. It was at this point that the necessity of a reliable healthcare paradigm became clear.
Patients’ demands are met globally by telehealth cardiac rehabilitation, even in remote and inconvenient locations. Moreover, it permits healthcare staff to work at their own pace and provides them with a necessary break. The telecardiology model of healthcare is quantifiable; it has assisted many patients during the pandemic, and healthcare professionals are continuously correcting previous errors and faults to turn this into a reliable system.
Generally speaking, telecardiology can benefit senior patients by helping them save a lot of energy, money, and time. It is the new face of medical sciences.
Now it’s time to see how Telecardiology works.
How Telecardiology works
Telecardiology works on the availability of a specific apparatus that can perform a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) in a primary care environment, record it, and send the image as a sound signal over the phone line.
Telecardiology, on the other hand, transformed back this information into an image on the screen. After that, a written summary is sent to the patient center while an oral report is sent as soon as specialists have interpreted this data. The telecardiology center stores all ECGs in an electronic database to compare ECGs of the same patient in the future.
There is single-lead ECG equipment that resembles watches that can be used for fast monitoring while the patient is still at home. It makes it possible to understand and diagnose the disease status more accurately.
Once the patient arrives at the doctor’s office, this device can store the captured photographs and send them to the specialist. The benefit of this method is that the patient can record the ECG as and when symptoms develop rather than having to wait to get to the doctor’s office.
 How are pediatric and primary care strengthened by telecardiology?
The main goals of primary care are Disease promotion, prevention, and recovery. Telecardiology is the reason behind the considerable improvement in Primary and pediatric care.
To support the aforementioned assertion, let’s examine an example. There is a test called echocardiography that detects ultrasonic waves emanating from the heart and aid medical professionals in understanding the heart’s rhythm. Arrhythmias and other heart conditions can also be identified with the help of an echocardiogram.
The usefulness of echocardiography in identifying and treating pediatric heart disorders early on makes it of the highest relevance in pediatric healthcare.
The necessity of these echo tests is emphasized by telecardiology. As a result, they are now available on a considerably larger scale. For precise and quick heart disease detection, these echocardiograms can be instantly forwarded to any specialist in the world. These lab tests are becoming more affordable and practical thanks to telecardiology, which is pushing more industries to offer similar testing services at the primary level of healthcare.
Let’s see some benefits of Telecardiology for patients and cardiologists
Benefits of Telecardiology
The followings are the benefit of Telecardiology for patients and cardiologists-
1. Reduction in hospital transfers
There aren’t tertiary hospitals in every town or neighborhood to handle complex medical issues. It results in more hospital transfers, particularly for those with severe heart conditions. In addition to the therapy they receive, patients are required to pay for their own transportation to a far-off tertiary hospital.
With telecardiology, the difficulty of hospital transfers can be lessened because it just takes one session to evaluate whether the patient can be treated online or not.
2. Increasing Cardiac Patients’ Access to High-End Medical Care
Since there may not be many cardiac experts in such places, patients in rural or remote areas generally depend on general practitioners for their heart health. They have access to the knowledge of cardiologists who have worked in the subject for decades thanks to telecardiology.
Community hospitals may experience extreme overcrowding, which causes patients to wait an excessive length of time for their turn. Time and timely diagnosis are crucial when treating heart problems. Wait times can be cut down and consultations can happen more quickly with telecardiology.
This analysis revealed that face-to-face consultations and telecardiology models produce comparable outcomes for patients with heart failure.
3. Accessibility
Every citizen has the right to get affordable, standardized medical care. Patients can communicate with their cardiologists remotely thanks to telecardiology. It is a crucial component of offering top-notch healthcare to all residents, irrespective of their circumstances, especially those who must live in outlying areas and rural towns.
4. Improves Patient Contentment
Regarding patient satisfaction, Telecardiology has a lot to offer. Appointments can be made by patients without interfering with their work schedules. Patients also benefit greatly from telemedicine because of the shorter wait periods.
5. Support efficient diagnosis and lessen the workload for healthcare professionals
Healthcare practitioners feel more at ease treating their patients as fewer people visit hospitals and more turn to the telecardiology approach.
Telecardiology would significantly lower the unbalanced doctor-to-patient ratio that frequently leads to mismanagement and chaos inside the hospital grounds when it is overrun with people. Additionally, it increases the workload of the prestigious and important healthcare workforce.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have discussed the use of Telecardiology in Healthcare. We have also mentioned what Telecardiology is, how it works, and its benefits. We hope that the blog will be useful for you.
