Difference Between Teleneurology And Telemedicine

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine is an advanced healthcare technology that allows healthcare professionals to diagnose, evaluate, and treat patients virtually via telecommunications technology. This innovative approach has revolutionized the medical sector and has become one of the most crucial parts of the American healthcare infrastructure.

Telemedicine connects a medical health professional and a patient in different geographical locations and thus acts as a bridge to facilitate healthcare access. Medical professionals who use telemedicine can offer prompt, accurate, and immediate access to healthcare to patients in dire need and can also evaluate patients over a particular period using telemedicine tools and technologies. The process is generally done through a voice call, video conference, text messaging, email, or other virtual platforms.

Telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services and uses electronic software and communications to offer clinical services to patients, eliminating the necessity of an in-person visit. It is also seldom used for managing chronic conditions, follow-up visits, specialist consultations, medication management, and several other clinical services that a healthcare provider can easily provide virtually through secure and protected audio and video connections.

The Benefits of Telemedicine

The use of telemedicine as an alternative to in-person hospital visits has brought about numerous benefits, including decreased readmission and hospitalization statistics; reduced healthcare costs; and higher patient engagement. Patients using telemedicine usually enjoy the following aspects:

• elimination of travel expenses and time usage
• -Decreased time away from work
• Augmented privacy
• Immediate access to healthcare
• Less disruption to elderly or childcare responsibilities
• No exposure to potentially contagious patients or the hospital environment is likely to cause infections.

Apart from patients, healthcare providers also benefit from the various advantages telemedicine brings. Some of them are as follows:

• Enhanced office efficiency
• Increased revenue generation
• Private payer reimbursement
• Reduced cancellations and missed appointments
• An effective response to the competitive threat of online-only healthcare providers and retail health clinics
• Better health outcomes and patient flow

What is Teleneuology?

Teleneurology is a domain in telemedicine that diagnoses and treats patients with neurological conditions through virtual platforms. Similar to other areas of telemedicine, teleneurology has also gained a spotlight in the past few years, and its use has become even more common after the coronavirus pandemic.

Although stroke is the most commonly treated neurological condition through teleneurology, also known as telestroke, various other neurological conditions are diagnosable and treatable through teleneurology. These include epilepsy, migraine, dementia, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, peripheral neuropathy, and many others. Teleneurology initiatives have proven considerably significant in stroke treatment, as thrombolytic treatments are administered promptly. Notwithstanding the patient’s geographical location, a neurologist can easily administer treatment procedures through

Teleneurology allows the seamless practice of neurology even with the medical professional and patient in different geographical locations and possibly even time zones. The two primary techniques used include the following:

Video-Conferencing

Video-conferencing allows seamless communication between a patient and a doctor in different places simultaneously—generally known as synchronous or real-time.

Email

In this scenario, the consultation does not require the patient’s presence. It can, thus, occur at a time convenient to the medical professionals involved—also known as asynchronous or store-and-forward teleneurology. Teleneurology can effectively bridge the gap between medical professionals and patients with neurological disorders who cannot access adequate healthcare.

Some common medical scenarios that teleneurology can address include the following:

• Patients who come into a hospital with acute neurological symptoms rarely get to consult with a neurologist
• Poor access to neurologists, especially in developing countries
• Non-optimal epilepsy management
• Lengthy waiting times to see a neurologist
• Unproductive travel time for neurologists
• Delayed or inefficient acute stroke treatment

What Is the Distinction Between Teleneurology and Telemedicine?

In doing so, neurology is a specialty that emphasizes the accurate interpretation of medical history and, in doing so, derives its basis from telemedicine. It has been a comparatively new domain in the field of telemedicine, as considerable research in teleneurology has been conducted in the past five years.

Teleneurology is quite similar to telemedicine in its work and is not a separate medical specialty. It is a branch of telemedicine that offers specialized consultations for neurological conditions in a remote location via the Internet or telephone. Similar to telemedicine, it encompasses teleconferencing and teleconsultations and may be initiated by a patient or a medical professional. Telemedicine is an umbrella term that includes several specialized disciplines, one of which is teleneurology.

American-board certified and fellowship-trained professionals at NeuroX specialize in various neurological and psychological disorders and offer high-quality and affordable healthcare right at your doorstep. You can book an online appointment with a neurologist of your choice for different neurological conditions, including dementia, epilepsy, migraine, multiple sclerosis, and several others, within minutes by heading to NeuroX!