Page 11 - Telecom Reseller October-November 2016

October/November 2016
DIBATTISTA
With the introduction of new video technology to this relationship many providers are beginning to wonder if it is in the best interest of their patients to introduce a technological intermediary. ey wonder if telemedicine is a threat or an aid to the quality of care they can provide to a patient. Looking at those who have begun to utilize telemedicine with their patients we can observe the e ect this new technology is having on the age old bond of patient and provider.
In a 2016 study published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (http://www. aasmnet.org/articles.aspx?id=6155) it was found that patients were reporting higher levels of satisfaction with telemedicine visits compared to traditional visits at no cost to clinical e ectiveness. e driving factor behind these results was the improved access to care resulting in reduced wait and travel times for participants
LSO and the Evolution of Carrier Ethernet Services
PTASHKA
by Roman Ptashka,
Product Manager at MRV Communications (http://mrv.co)
receiving care over video. e bene ts for patients are immense when it comes to o ering video visits in terms of the convenience and exibility it brings to their appointments. Video platforms are becoming increasingly better
at simulating the o ce visit, o ering features ranging from customized waiting rooms where patients can see their spot in line in a “virtual” queue to online access to paperwork that usually would be lled out in the o ce. Empowering patients to have increased control over the ow of their visits is a great way for providers to show they value their patient’s time and are committed to seeing them no matter time or physical constraints.
e in uence telemedicine may have over the future of the visit is resounding. In a 2014 study conducted by the VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (http://www.
continued from page 3
healthitoutcomes.com/doc/patients-satis ed- with-telehealth-for-follow-up-care-0001) it was found that not only were patients satis ed with the service, but 95% said they wanted to continue receiving care via telemedicine as opposed to an in person visit. It was recorded in this study that patient savings netted $48,000 because of the reduced need to travel from rural locations to the VA. For specialists and primary care providers alike these studies show a rising trend in patients who will have a demand for video enabled visits because of the added convenience and time savings it gives them. Once a patient is enabled to use telemedicine for specialty care it is only a matter of time before they desire it for their other areas of care as well.
While these early studies are telling, one question remains--can video visits really substitute for the experience of actually having a patient in
Telecom Reseller 11 the o ce? Providers seem to have a gut feeling
that when they see a patient over video they are somehow providing a lower quality of care or making the visit less personal. It is important
to remember that telemedicine does not aim to destroy the patient-physician relationship, but rather operate as a supplement. Telemedicine is an extension of the provider, allowing the patient provider relationship to grow by enabling visits that may otherwise not have happened.
By o ering patients the option to utilize telemedicine for visits, providers are taking
their relationship into the modern age, and utilizing video technology to deliver a new age of house calls. is is a transformation of the patient relationship, is moving medicine into the age of on demand consumers. Patients appear
to be warmly embracing the convenience that video visits can add to their lives. It is now up to providers to respond and foster in a new age of visits, revolutionizing their relationships with patients to be more accessible and exible. ■
T
oice for Conferencing
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
Th
Of
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
o
n
w
i
w
i
n
g
e
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
.
e
n
v
i
ff
n
v
i
h
h
h
h
h
h
he
fe
t
h
l
t
h
l
er
r
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
.
e
e
e S
e
s
s
e
f
f
o
r
t
i
e
s
s
e
f
f
o
r
t
i
c
a
t
i
c
a
t
i
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
So
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
ou
o
n
a
n
d
c
o
l
o
n
a
n
d
c
o
l
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
u
un
n
a
n
y
m
e
e
t
i
n
a
n
y
m
e
e
t
i
at
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
nd
tu
ur
ra
a
l
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d C
l
s
l
l
s
o
a
b
o
r
a
t
i
a
b
o
r
a
t
i
ou
C
Ch
un
n
d
n
g
h
ho
Every so o en, a new paradigm shi emerges in the telecommunications industry amid
a sea of competing “acronyms of the day.”
e last such major shi was the introduction, followed by widespread adoption, of OAM technologies that nally brought robust, assured Carrier Ethernet services into the mainstream. It took several years before initial recommendations made by MEF evolved into widely-adopted standards driven by organizations such as ITU.T and IEEE. It took several years more before di erent vendors’ implementations became truly interoperable and operators were nally able to e ectively deploy these technologies and begin reaping the bene ts.
Recently, as with OAM a decade ago, a new shi appears to be taking hold in the industry. While much noise has been made about SDN and NFV in recent years, the appeal of these technologies and associated bene ts, such as improved operational e ciency and CAPEX reductions driven by virtualization, have so
far mostly been limited to the larger service providers. A number of these larger carriers recognized the potential bene ts that dynamic, automated, user-managed services implemented on top of a next generation programmable network could bring. ey were some of the earliest adopters of these technologies and if
the rate of expansion of associated new service o erings beyond the initial trial markets into the rest of their networks is any indication, the bene ts quickly went from “potential” to “why didn’t we do this sooner?”
While e ective, these early e orts were nevertheless proprietary in nature and required a signi cant amount of expertise as well as resources to implement. e larger providers could a ord and justify the investment required to realize the bene ts, which could further be optimized by the sheer scale of their
O
,n
in
ng
gq
qu
u
a
al
l
i
it
ty
y
,
n
a
de
e
n
o
n
na
ables
Revolabs provides crystal-clear microphone and audio conferencing solutions for professional audio, uni ed communications and enterprise collaboration applications.
Make all meetings effective with great audio from Revolabs!
Find your ideal audio conferencing solution at revolabs.com
PTASHKAcontinuesonpage 16 ››