Key Highlights

  • Telehealth is a broad term for digital communications and information technology to access healthcare information and manage care.
  • Telemedicine is a specific term used to describe the use of digital communications and information technology to diagnose and treat patients by offering remote clinical medical services.
  • Expanding telehealth and telemedicine is transforming clinical medical and healthcare operations management. 
  • Asahi Technologies delivers virtual care service solutions for healthcare and medical enterprises looking to expand telehealth and telemedicine services.  

Difference Between Telehealth and Telemedicine

Are you curious about the difference between telehealth and telemedicine? Let’s break it down for you.

Telehealth: is a broad term for digital communications and information technology to access healthcare information and manage care. A telehealth solution may involve a community hospital system’s physician-facing web application and corresponding healthcare mobile app that patients use to connect with the service. 

Telemedicine: A specific term used to describe the use of digital communications and information technology to diagnose and treat patients by offering remote clinical medical services. A telemedicine solution may involve web portals to provide patients access to remote clinical outpatient mental health services. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth and telemedicine services usage skyrocketed as patients and providers saw clear benefits in the expanded access this new care delivery offered. Though it’s easy to think of telehealth vs. telemedicine, these concepts support each other and represent the expansion of clinical medicine and healthcare operations management.

Many healthcare organizations are embracing digital acceleration and a “virtual-first” initiative toward leveraging insights gained during the pandemic into measurable value for patients, physicians, and payers. Telehealth services such as patient portals, information platforms, and digital health applications provide a vital touch point linking patients with their community health networks.

Telehealth expands the digital front door and creates a more cohesive end-to-end digital health ecosystem that provides access to patients and other stakeholders connected to the community health system. Telemedicine brings medical resources and expertise to patients while delivering physicians potent new methods for supporting preventative medicine and swifter interventions to head off chronic disease. 

The expansion of telemedicine accelerates daily as more communities connect to broadband wireless communications technologies and adopt the rural community health hub and spoke approach. Digital services allow rural patient consumers to access suburban and urban providers more easily using computers, video, and messaging software. 

The Key Differences Between Telehealth vs Telemedicine

Instead of considering telehealth vs. telemedicine as a type of competition, consider them complementary elements of delivering clinical medical and healthcare operations services. 

Telehealth: Solutions to Expand Digital Health Services 

The main types of telehealth are healthcare administration, scheduling and communications, and remote care management. 

Healthcare admin is a blanket term that describes how doctors and patients use telehealth software to compete in expanding remote healthcare management services. 

Scheduling and communicating with professionals using communications technology are core functions of this software. 

Finally, remote care management refers to the ability of these solutions to provide access to processes and workflows that change how these end-user groups manage healthcare remotely. 

Here are some relevant telehealth use cases: 

  • Linking patients and providers to deliver new ways to manage core healthcare services, access community health resources, and support better information flows. 
  • Delivering healthcare administrators new ways to engage patients in managing their care using digital technologies. 
  • Creating new opportunities to connect with community health resources using mobile devices, web applications, and digital health apps. 

Telemedicine: Solutions to Enhance Remote Clinical Practices 

The main types of telemedicine are interactive medicine, remote patient monitoring, and storing and forwarding patient health information (PHI). 

Interactive medicine is the new landscape of “distance-based healing,” which allows doctors to communicate with patients in real time and use medical device hardware and other sensing technologies to capture diagnostic insights while maintaining HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance. 

Storing and forwarding PHI refers to the need for telemedicine providers to share sensitive personal health information. As telemedicine expands, it is essential to exchange patient data and biological material securely. 

Remote patient monitoring services are another critical component of telemedicine that guides the usage of data collection services using medical devices.

Here are some relevant telemedicine use cases: 

  • They link patients and providers to support clinical diagnosis, medical care planning, prescribing medications, and delivering life-saving interventions to remote and underserved populations. 
  • Providing new workflows for medical teams to stay up to date with their patients while creating new organizational processes leveraging automation to reduce manual processes. 
  • They offer patients the ability to manage their medical care remotely using the latest digital technologies. 

Examples of Telehealth and Telemedicine 

Telehealth, telemedicine, and virtual care services are expanding rapidly. 

Here are some examples of custom healthcare technology solutions delivering these services: 

  • Digital Healthcare Applications: Hospitals, clinics, specialists, and physicians are using telehealth and telemedicine software to build out their digital health ecosystems to expand patient access to vital services. 
  • Patient Engagement Tools: Many providers are releasing digital applications to make it more fun, easy, and enjoyable for patients to learn about their health, track their care, and leverage tools to reach better results. 
  • Third-Party Solutions: Many third-party clients of healthcare and medical service providers, such as pharmacies, assisted living facilities, and veterinarians, can benefit from telehealth and telemedicine functions to expand their services using safe and proven frameworks. 

How Can Asahi Technologies Help You with Developing Telemedicine and Telehealth Applications?

Asahi Technologies is a technology solutions provider with deep domain expertise delivering custom digital health products to healthcare enterprises. 

We deliver the expertise, insight, and guidance our clients need to harness the full potential of trending capabilities like telehealth and telemedicine so our clients can enhance their reputations and competitive advantage. 

If you are ready to deliver tomorrow’s next-generation digital health services, get in touch.

Stay ahead of the game with our helpful resources

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Sindhu

Sindhu

Client Success Manager

Sindhu is a tenacious and impassioned digital product and project manager specializing in driving client success across complex healthcare technology implementations and integrations. She is a certified Agile Scrum Master and holds advanced degrees in computer science and software engineering. Her philosophy is that “work is where the heart is” and believes the key to success is creating a solid, supportive, and cohesive team.

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