68% of online health platform users do not need to travel to hospital after receiving remote care

MADRID, November 18 (European press) –

Sixty-eight percent of users of virtual online health platforms do not need to travel to a hospital after contacting a doctor online, according to data collected by Telefónica and the world’s leading telemedicine company, Teladoc Health, through its Movistar Salud service, which Movistar sells for 2017.

The Director of E-Health at Telefónica Spain, Vicente Gisbert, explained that “remote assistance allows the patient to start treating his disease from the first symptoms, avoid complications and start treatment much earlier than if he had to get an appointment and go to the doctor”, a few days before, At the Roundtable “Healthcare in a Data World” organized by Fundación Telefónica as part of the Foros Sociedad Digital.

Indeed, one of Movistar Salud’s most valuable services is the immediate access to primary care professionals, as well as the Digital Pre-Symptom Assessment Tool, an AI-based tool that enables the first assessment of the patient thanks to the entry of symptoms into the system. The software collects this information in a database and assesses, through an algorithm, the level of risk and recommends medical steps to follow.

For chronic patients, those who already know their disease and its treatment and how they should proceed, telecare is an invaluable help. “The chronic patient is the biggest beneficiary of telemedicine services, because they are the first to know the symptoms when a crisis or outbreak arises, and therefore can start fighting them as soon as possible,” said Maria Gálvez, director. Patient organizations platform, which brings together various associations of patients with chronic diseases and various diseases.

Another most used service within the platform refers to personal well-being through a program that helps lead a healthy and healthy life and provides food and exercise guidance. Because mental health is one of the most valuable and needed services due to the impact of the health crisis.

“Remote assistance is available to any patient, you don’t need anything more than a phone for remote consultations, which is also the preferred method for Movistar Salud clients compared to video consultation, which only 20% of patients choose,” Gisbert explained, for Who Should Be Cost a hindrance. “Movistar Salud assumes a cost of 40 cents a day – 11 euros per month – to cover the whole family,” he warned.

The roundtable was also attended by Teladoc Health’s International Medical Director, Dr. Rafael Goetzens, who spoke about a future that is already very present, and which we are headed toward. “There will be a need for more doctors and nurses, and we are moving towards smaller, specialized hospitals, concentrating the best professionals in each specialty at one point, and from there, to provide remote assistance even several kilometers away,” he said.

He concluded, “Surgical interventions using robots operated by a remote surgeon or resuscitation of premature babies from a highly specialized center in another city are medical realities that are already here, and they just have to spread.”