Discussion In the first report by ASC Communications of 57 healthcare leaders in the U.S., 84% of healthcare leaders across the country believe telemedicine development is either important or very important. In contrast, only 6% of those healthcare leaders saw their current telemedicine programs as mature and also a quarter of them expected less than 10% of their patients to use telemedicine services. This lack of maturity and the low expectancy of use are because telemedicine and telehealth care still in its earlier stages of development and a majority of patients who seek healthcare services are the elderly. Our generation grew up with technology as an integrative part of our lives, so as our general health declines over the years, we will …show more content…
Some of the most common ones are electronic glitches, physician resistance, inadequate assessment and the elderly. Technology is not always reliable, other outside factors such as weather could cause a shortage or break a connection during an online consultation with a practitioner. However, as long as the hospital staff keeps this is mind when making appointments for online consultations and have a backup generator/plan, telehealth technologies will still continue to work to the best of their abilities. Next, there will always be physician resistance to change, “the bulk of resistance comes from doctors struggling to comfortably use the new technology” (Harper, 2012). However, even though doctors aren’t comfortable at the start, all healthcare providers are interested in better managing their patients’ healthcare through monitoring and reaching those in rural areas in need of healthcare. Next there is inadequate assessment. Although having the ability to videoconference with healthcare provider is convenient, certain signals might not be there. There are no restrictions on how providers can use telemedicine and telehealth but one con might be that providers cannot touch the patient. And lastly, the older generation might struggle with using telehealth or suffering from a lack of physical contact from their providers. However, there are numerous studies reporting positive attitudes from this age group towards assistive telehealth technologies and that they are not struggling. “These include Swedish interview-based research involving older patients living alone and using telemonitoring devices. Overwhelmingly, participants revealed increased feelings of safety as a result of having the equipment installed” (Royer, 2010). There are many telehealth technology systems that have combined RMPs with