Telemedicine in Nursing: How Telehealth Applications Improve the Industry

It’s hardly possible to find any sphere of life that doesn’t rely on today’s digital technologies. Healthcare is an outstanding example. Software solutions are steadily increasing the efficiency and quality of medical treatment, which has drawn growing interest in developing custom apps from hospitals and medical organizations all over the world. In this article, we will focus on one precise aspect of healthcare, by taking a closer look at the role of telemedicine in nursing.

We will analyze the importance of telehealth in nursing and share our vision for the future of this segment. If you have specific ideas for a project in this category or are just considering the feasibility of such a project, you may find this blog post very helpful!

Today’s technologies enable nurses to communicate with patients, track their condition in real-time, and provide recommendations in a fully remote format via various software solutions, including user-friendly mobile apps. Nurses typically work this way with patients with minor issues or chronic diseases, and their relatives. This helps reduce the patient load for doctors and is convenient for patients, who can interact with a remote nurse regardless of geographical location or even time of day.

Needed assistance can be provided rapidly, as neither nurse nor patient needs to waste time traveling, registering at a medical center, and sitting in a waiting room. Many countries currently face a shortage of nurses, but the impact of this problem can be mitigated with solutions for telehealth in nursing. This allows adequate care to be performed by fewer specialists.

Let’s have a look at some other benefits of telehealth nursing:

• It provides a new channel for building interaction between patients and medical staff, who can more efficiently guide people through the whole treatment process.
• Nurses can establish closer contact with patients to support more meaningful communication without the distractions and interruptions that often take place during traditional hospital visits.
• As there is no need to spend time traveling to patients' places of residence or moving from one room to another, nurses can focus more on providing medical help.
• Telemedicine nursing is also a convenient way to help families understand what they need to do to care for patients.

Speaking of the benefits of telemedicine nursing for the healthcare industry as a whole, it’s important to note the possibility of reducing operational costs, thanks to the fact that telemedicine can help reduce emergency department visits and the number of patients who need to be admitted.

Nursing software solutions can also play an important role in working with patients who have chronic diseases. In this case, the patient can be in contact with medical staff practically 24/7 and get the required help as soon as possible.

The positive impact of telemedicine in nursing has strongly influenced a growing interest in mobile app development services, with mobile apps for remote nursing at the top of the list. In a moment we’ll take a look at the types of applications available today.

However, let’s not forget that nursing also demands at least occasional physical contact with patients (for example, for doing injections or dressing wounds). Unfortunately, modern technologies do not offer the opportunity to perform these tasks at a distance, which means nursing services can’t be fully replaced by telehealth solutions, though they can be significantly improved and facilitated with them

Having described the advantages of telehealth in nursing, let’s focus now on some examples of apps already in use and the tasks they help perform. First, a reminder that while telemedicine refers to solutions aimed at providing remote clinical services, telehealth is a wider category. It includes remote clinical services and a wide range of non-clinical aspects (such as medical staff training, education, etc.)  Here, we’ll consider both categories.

• Remote patient care

This functionality was in high demand during the coronavirus pandemic that broke out in 2020. During the period of the heaviest lockdowns, it was very challenging to get access to traditional medical services, and remote nursing became the only possible alternative for many people around the globe.

• Remote health state monitoring

Thanks to the development of IoT technologies (namely IoMT), nurses can track changes in patients’ vital health parameters in real-time, in a fully remote setup. Special medical wearable devices measure factors such as blood pressure, breathing, or blood sugar level, and can notify the nurse in case of emergency.

• Scheduling

User-friendly apps for scheduling can become a great solution for nurses, who usually have a hectic timetable. An app can notify the user about shift changes, provide reminders about upcoming events, and even let the user introduce a change to the schedule in a couple of clicks, without the need to see a manager.

• Documentation

A mobile app for documentation of the treatment process can significantly simplify paperwork for nurses, reduce stress, and allow nurses to give utmost attention to their primary responsibility of caring for their patients. Good medical documentation, including electronic health records (EHRs) that are easily updated, is vital for all medical staff in getting a full picture of a patient’s state and treatment.

• Access to relevant medical information

Today there are a lot of mobile apps for nurses that provide access to huge volumes of medical knowledge, including not only traditional academic articles but also the latest news, comments, and updates. There are also apps that help nurses to prepare for the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) certification exam

While telehealth mobile apps and medical wearable devices are common today, there are some developments that haven’t yet been widely adopted but certainly could be in the future.

Internet of Things technologies are expected to revolutionize telehealth and nursing and expand the range of the available telemedicine software features for wearables. While smart wearables are already rather common, smart hospital beds powered by multiple sensors haven’t been as widely introduced. Built-in sensors measure temperature, breathing, and other vital parameters and send data in real-time to monitoring stations, where nurses can keep track of a whole cluster of patients. Smart beds can also notify nurses when a patient is trying to change position or get up. This allows for timely intervention to prevent falls and injuries.

Medical robots are another promising development. Robots are already assisting surgeons, but they can also be useful in nursing. For example, they can deliver medications to patients, and sanitize and clean various surfaces.

Today the segment of software solutions designed for healthcare and nursing in particular is constantly growing. The main reason is that the benefits of telehealth nursing for both patients and medical staff are worth the investment and effort.

At Cogniteq, we have rich expertise in healthcare app development services. We build innovative software products aimed at enhancing medical services and making them more accessible to a wide audience. We have a wide range of successfully launched projects of this type, and our portfolio is constantly expanding. 

One example of our projects is a cardiology data management system created for a US-based healthcare institution. It offers many options for remote cardiac monitoring, data collection, analysis, and reporting. The main goal of this platform was to enable nurses and medical staff to offer more patient-centered care, thanks to obtaining more accurate and time-relevant data. Since the project launch, our client has noted that now their staff needs less time for disease diagnosis and organizing workflow. What’s even more important, clinical experience in arrhythmia monitoring has been significantly enhanced.

Have an idea for a healthcare app? We would be happy to become your IT partner and guide you through the entire journey to a released solution. Do not hesitate to contact us!