Telemedicine: The Future is Here!
Telehealth is an amazing way to provide and receive health care anytime, anywhere. Sounds unreal? That is because this is a very modern and progressive type of healthcare. But, amazingly, it actually works. We have the honor to witness many technology innovations, and telehealth is definitely one of the most positive ones. It represents the future of health care and the ultimate tool to provide near hospital-level monitoring and response in the comfort of the patient’s home or any other location.
The purposes of telehealth are many and include helping people improve both their physical and mental health. And living in an era of fast and busy lifestyles and crowded clinics, having an expert who is available to help you even remotely is quite a blessing.
Telehealth helps you sleep
One of many purposes of telehealth is helping people treat various sleeping disorders. For example, there are some innovative telemedicine sleep treatment centers, such as Alaska Sleep Clinic, which can diagnose and treat sleeping disorders. This includes sleep apnea, snoring, and insomnia, and you get to receive treatment from the comfort of your home.
Telepsychiatry services anytime, anywhere
Beside sleeping clinics, a great number of psychiatric groups have added telepsychiatry to their services in order to better serve their clients and meet their needs under their conditions. Furthermore, behavioral and mental health treatment is one of the fastest growing areas of telehealth and telemedicine. More and more psychiatrists offer online counseling, therapy, and addiction treatment. Therefore, all patients need is access to the internet to get help for their sleep disorders and mental health issues at any time of day from their own home.
Good sleep affects our mental and physical health positively. 
The advantages of telehealth
What is impressive about telehealth is its amazing ability to bridge time and distance and to deliver care to the point of need. A great benefit is that nurses and physicians can make virtual visits to a patient’s home to diagnose and treat them. And all that is happening without patients leaving their home and experts leaving their office. Most importantly, the biggest advantage of telehealth is saving both time and money.
Communication is a key
Also, telehealth provides improved communication between patients and physicians. What is very convenient and important for both parties is that it decreases the number of hospital admissions. For example, the patient could upload their blood test results to their physician’s office for a review. And then the physician could send feedbacks and reminders to their patients. Furthermore, patients can have access to their electronic medical record and see their latest results, or email their physician and receive a prompt response.
Sleep and health
Studies have shown that getting the right amount of sleep on a regular basis helps us to be both emotionally and mentally more resilient. When we get enough sleep, we feel more able to deal with the difficulties that life brings us. On the other side, chronic sleep disruptions can encourage negative thinking and make us emotionally more vulnerable. Furthermore, all people function best if they get 8 hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep. An ideal rhythm includes getting up and going to bed at the same time every day.
Good sleep habits are essential to our mental health, but contemporary lifestyle often makes this difficult to achieve. Without enough sleep, we are at much higher risk of developing anxiety, depression or just felling tired all the time. In fact, people with issues such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can reduce their symptoms drastically when they get enough sleep.
Telehealth allows physicians perform virtual visits to their patients
Hence, sleep is absolutely essential to our wellbeing. And sometimes we need help getting that sleep. Telehealth is the future of sleep treatment and mental health issues. It will help you privately, efficiently and in the comfort of your own home.
The risks that follow insomnia
Insomnia always starts like a small sleeping disorder which we believe won’t be permanent. However, after some time, your chances of depression are doubled. Luckily, insomnia is treatable.
Interestingly, researchers from the University of Oxford conducted a study looking to link sleep habits to mental health problems. A group who had insomnia was treated with a course of cognitive behavioral therapy in order to improve their sleeping. Following the treatment, they found out that both their sleep and their mental health had improved.
This brings us to the conclusion that sleeping and mental health are strongly connected. The lack of sleep affects negatively how we feel, just like sleeping well improves our mood. Weekly telepsychiatry sessions can deliver the help that patients need, especially if performed before they go to sleep. Their privacy is well protected and there are no more situations that often make people feel uncomfortable, like sitting in a waiting room.
Sleeping disorders can affect our mental health
What is CPAP?
Telehealth has also become a blessing for homecare. CPAP stands for Continuous positive airway pressure. Basically it is a positive airway pressure ventilator, which applies mild air pressure to keep the airways open all the time for the people who are not able to breathe on their own. Scientists gather CPAP compliance information using wireless modems and smart stick transmission technology. And this technology will continue to improve.
These downloads are performed automatically at the time intervals that the patient chooses, and the download information is automatically entered into their electronic medical chart and sent to the patient’s physician. People with sleep apnea and other sleeping disorders have started using CPAP machines and the results are amazing. And if CPAP resolves all your sleeping issues and you don’t need it any more, you can leave all your equipment in storage or give it to someone else who might need it.
Telehealth: The Future is Here
Telehealth is changing the face of home care and it will only get better as the technology improves. In some ways, it changes how nurses’ and physicians’ visits are conducted, saving your time, money and energy. It allows you to heal under your own conditions, in the comfort of your home. What does this mean for nurses in 2020 and beyond? How can someone become a registered nurse in 2020? The future is exciting, so be part of it!
Telemedicine at Alaska Sleep Clinic
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. It has been used to overcome distance barriers and to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations.
Although there were distant precursors to telemedicine, it is essentially a product of 20th century telecommunication and information technologies. These technologies permit communications between patient and medical staff with both convenience and fidelity, as well as the transmission of medical, imaging and health informatics data from one site to another.
Telemedicine is beneficial to patients in isolated communities and remote regions, who can receive care from doctors or specialists far away without the patient having to travel to visit them. Telemedicine is health care without walls. It connects patients and medical providers through live, web-based video visits. By eliminating the barrier of distance, telemedicine improves access to care. It saves time and reduces travel expenses, making health care more efficient. While it used to represent the future of medicine, telemedicine is here now – and it is available to you at Alaska Sleep Clinic through AASM SleepTM.
At Alaska Sleep Clinic, our philosophy centers on treating every patient with compassion, understanding and personal attention. We know how important a good night’s sleep is to a person’s health and quality of life, that’s why diagnosing and treating sleep disorders is our primary focus. Alaska Sleep Clinic is a group of four American Academy of Sleep Medicine accredited sleep clinics and now, Alaska Sleep Clinic is the ONLY sleep clinic in Alaska using SleepTM, the latest in sleep telemedicine technology.
AASM SleepTM is a sleek new telemedicine system from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. HIPAA-compliant and secure, SleepTM is a state-of-the-art telemedicine system for sleep medicine professionals and accredited sleep centers like Alaska Sleep Clinic. AASM SleepTM is a secure, easy-to-use telemedicine platform that allows our patients to receive specialized medicine from a distance, saving time and travel costs without sacrificing quality.
In today’s digital age, emerging technologies are redefining the way patients access and receive quality healthcare from their trusted medical professionals. Telemedicine – which is loosely defined as electronically transmitting medical information from one site to another – is one of the latest advancements in medical care which is reinventing how patients receive treatment for medical conditions and diseases from now and into the future.
AASM SleepTM is now available for your patients to download on both the iPhone and the Android. We mean it when we say that connecting with your patients has never been easier. Sign up for a free, one-on-one demo with an AASM SleepTM expert and embrace the future of healthcare.
Alaska Sleep Clinic is the most comprehensive multisite sleep lab in Alaska with clinics in Anchorage, Wasilla, Fairbanks, and Soldotna and we continue to expand our services to those with sleep disorders. Angela Randazzo, PhD is a specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with expertise in sleep disorders. No other CBT sleep specialist provides care in the state of Alaska. She is available to Alaska Sleep Clinic’s patients via telemedicine, through SleepTM.
