People today are justifiably fearing that the ‘Swine Flu’, now officially called Influenza A (H1N1) by the World Health Organization, may soon reach epidemic proportions across the U.S. and rest of the globe.
In light of this, TelaDoc Medical Services and Quinnian Health are collaborating to provide round the clock, remote, and telephonic medical consultation through certified physicians to anyone who suspects that he, she, a loved one, a friend, or neighbor may have the initial symptoms of the dreaded disease.
“TelaDoc was selected by Quinnian for this current assignment based upon the training and experience of TelaDoc physicians in viral pandemic issues, as well as their thorough understanding of the antiviral prescriptions TamiFlu and Relenza,” said Richard J. Boxer, Chief Medical Officer of TelaDoc.
The company’s network of doctors is spread across the nation and will be leveraging its freely available Electronic Health Records (EHR) to expedite individual case reviews and deliver nationwide, broadband distributed communications to all agencies dealing with a marginally suspect case.
HealthTechZone recently
reported that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 2009 economic stimulus package had set aside $17.2 billion, out of $20 billion for Health Information Technology, to migrate all existing paper medical records to EHR by 2015.
Quinnian Health provides access to its Qhealth Platform via a Rapid Influenza Response Module that facilitates awareness, symptom recognition, checking parameters, recommended lab tests, accurate prescriptions, isolation precautions, and restorative timeframes.
“The TelaDoc model is particularly applicable to pandemic preparedness since consults are conducted via telephone, insulating physicians from patients and possible exposure to germs,” said Boxer. “Furthermore, physician telephone consults can be conducted at anytime and from anywhere, obviating the need for patients to leave home in order to access quality medical attention.”
“TelaDoc is more cost effective than a visit to the urgent care center or hospital emergency room, and a viable alternative when an individual’s physician is not available,” also said Boxer. “TelaDoc does not replace the existing primary care physician relationship, but instead enhances it with an efficient, cost-effective option.”
HealthTechZone also earlier
reported a research project where Radianse deployed its Real Time Location System for the Emergency Department of Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta primarily to collect live data via RTLS that would eventually be able to detect a contagious disease such as influenza early on, and thereby prevent it from infecting other patients and staff.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
