The Delivery of Healthcare Services and Telemedicine
The delivery of healthcare services has improved as a result of recent advancements in the industry, particularly in telemedicine. In the context of clinical health, telemedicine uses communication technologies like telephones and cutting-edge technology to offer or give health care services over long distances. (Roberts & Priest, 2010). As a result, medical personnel can easily connect with a lot of patients. WebMD.com, which is ranked as the finest among the online telemedicine services, is one example of a telemedicine innovation that has improved care delivery.
The Role of WebMD.com in improving Care Delivery
WebMD.com has made services available to help medical professionals, patients, and consumers navigate or access the complicated health care systems as a result of clinical research. For example, the individuals mentioned above can interact easily through email and even supply adequate medical information regarding the symptoms, helping with disease diagnosis (Alpert, Krist, Aycock, & Kreps, 2017). The innovation is attributed to previous clinical research focusing on the provision of online information, communicative outlets, and instructional services for both patients and physicians. Unlike the physical care institutions or traditional health care systems, WebMD.com creates a lot of convenience by taking into consideration individuals' interests or needs at any particular time through the several domains, which offer relevant programs and information (Matusitz & Breen, 2007a).
Areas of Further Research for WebMD.com
There is, however, the need for additional research to improve care delivery using WebMD.com. First, there is a lot of interest to compare the use of technology-based communication and the internet between physicians and patients, and how it differs from the normal face-to-face conversation with various specialties. It is crucial to grasp the effect of innovations such as WebMD.com on information exchange and users. Until today, there is the lack of adequate research to give reasonable explanations regarding patient dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the innovation (Matusitz, & Breen, 2007b). Secondly, there should be further research on the connection between decreased/low patient visits to health institutions or medical practitioners and increased/high WebMD.com use. Since the number of patients visiting the hospitals has gone down, it is also relevant to explore whether WebMD.com has impacts on complaints such as malpractice and sexual harassment, which is directly linked to physician visits. Finally, scholars should investigate further the potential vulnerabilities of WebMD.com due to the prevalence of cyber terrorism – such telemedicine services that use the internet are likely to be targeted for criminal mischief and terrorism.
Impact of WebMD.com in Health Care Research
The use of WebMd.com in telemedicine has external influences on health care research. For instance, the innovation can subtract and even eliminate the social human interaction or contact in health care settings. According to Matusitz and Breen (2007b), the human interaction is critical in any clinical research, and the lack of it is likely to result in inadequate research or invalid findings. On the contrary, the use of distant communication technologies or the internet is likely to capture a wide population and thus it is possible to come up with a good representation for research samples. At the same time, WebMD.com promotes immediate feedback for research purposes. Also, the invention of WebMD.com and other similar innovations have widened the complexity and scope of health care research resulting in more health care improvements. However, there are the challenges of patient privacy, licensing issues, and educational deficiencies, among others that call for additional research hence shaping the direction of future health care.
Conclusion
To sum up, innovations such as WebMD.com in telemedicine contribute significantly to improving health care through online communication, facilitating care delivery to a large population in the society. Clinical research plays a key role in such innovations in an attempt to improve health and even seeks to identify the areas of additional research as discussed in the essay. Like any other telemedicine innovation, WebMD.com has external influences on health care research and is likely to shape and define the future of care delivery.
References
Alpert, J. M., Krist, A. H., Aycock, R. A., & Kreps, G. L. (2017). Designing user-centric patient portals: Clinician and patients' uses and gratifications. Telemedicine and e-Health, 23(3), 248-253.
Matusitz, J., & Breen, G. M. (2007a). E-health: A new kind of telemedicine. Social Work in Public Health, 23(1), 95-113.
Matusitz, J., & Breen, G. M. (2007b). Telemedicine: Its effects on health communication. Health Communication, 21(1), 73-83.
Roberts, P., & Priest, H. (2010). Healthcare research: A handbook for students and practitioners. Chichester, West Sussex: J. Wiley.
