Jack Plotkin and the Future of Telehealth

It’s not often a concept comes along that changes an industry forever but Jack Plotkin thinks telehealth will be one of them. For those who don’t know, it’s the notion of meeting with your doctor for a consultation without actually being in the same room as them. When this concept was first established, the only way to perform the procedure was by having the patient answer yes or no questions over the phone regarding the symptoms of their condition. The doctors then had to attempt to diagnose the condition based solely on the information they received during the call. Nowadays, however, it’s much easier thanks to the advent of smartwatches and new technological innovations. These devices are now able to transmit your medical data to your doctor in seconds and they can then use this data to diagnose and treat your condition.

Of course, it’s not always this simple as many of these physicians find themselves with limited access to the medical records of their patients. Even nurses have a difficult time attempting to access the electronic medical records they need. However, there may soon be a way to work around this as they are currently developing a new platform that could become a solution to this problem. It’s called virtual health and it will attempt to combine all the data into one medical database so they can access whatever files they need for whatever patient they’re attempting to treat. However, even if this new system proves to be a success, there is still the issue of the rising costs of telehealth. Neither Medicare nor Medicaid will cover this procedure and, as Jack Plotkin points out, these types of treatments are not cheap. It doesn’t fall under insurance either but he believes that it will one day become ubiquitous.