The rise of tele-everything

By Cara Sheets

Jared Sheets, a primary care physician, wakes up and heads to work. But most days in this quarantine, work is to wherever the wifi is good enough for a video conference. Sheets is spearheading the use of video chat programming for patient interaction.

Telemedicine has become a recent reality for doctors trying to practice medicine safely and in accordance with social distancing regulations.

On days when he isn’t required for in-person practice in the office, Sheets will use video conferencing to visit with sometimes 20 patients a day. He did 293 virtual visits in the month of April.

Asked about this shift to telemedicine, Sheets remarked, “It’s going to be everywhere.” As medicine shifts online, as do other careers and day-to-day interactions. Teaching and education are now entirely online in Athens City School District and most other districts in the state of Ohio.

After all of this shift to online everything, the shift back may not be as sudden as expected. Some things, it seems, are more efficient online anyway. Sheets was surprised that many of his patients immediately adapted to virtual visits. Even though vitals can’t be taken by staff, the majority of his work is based on discussion and patient history which can be taken virtually. Patients are also able to safely and accurately monitor their own vitals at home.

“There's a lot of physical examination that can be evaluated on virtual visits: patient general appearance, mood, respiratory rate, many dermatologic findings, as well as components of the head and neck exam.”

In this state of emergency, telemedicine is working very well. Sheets expects the use of telemedicine to continue well after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

He expects many other businesses will take a similar approach. Teleconferencing is not only more widely available than ever, it makes day-to-day life more accessible for those who may have difficulty getting around and leaving the house.

With a future in video-based business, education, healthcare, and more, we face a new question: Is wifi a basic necessity? Should the government provide it?

The future holds many questions. As COVID-19 takes its toll on the world, we adapt. The only question is, will life return to as it was before, or will we continue to adapt and embrace rapidly changing technology? Time will tell.