There has been a recent 40 – 60% drop in doctor’s visits. For several months now COVID-19 has made normal interactions potentially hazardous, especially at hospitals and clinics, precisely the places one would expect to find infected patients. The situation has brought financial hardship to clinicians and care providers, in some instances to the extent that medical practices may be in jeopardy. Worse still, the ill and the injured are neglecting themselves very much to their own detriment for fear of contracting the coronavirus. So, you have people in the midst of an acute crisis trying to diminish an obvious emergency, and tens if not hundreds of thousands more reluctant to properly tend to chronic conditions. It’s an intolerable development that must not persist.
Solve.Care’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Hanekom recently presented the Global Telehealth Exchange. To call this solution that addresses many of today’s healthcare challenges timely, would be to risk understatement. Well before the pandemic prompted a reassessment of the healthcare industry, Solve.Care sought to circumvent the costly administrative redundancies straining the current patchwork system in countries such as the United States. Why should doctors who have expended so much effort gaining expertise spend as much as 75% of their time performing clerical duties? Why should plans, policies, and payments have a technical complexity rivaling medicine itself? If correcting the various inefficiencies undermining healthcare were not incentive enough, COVID-19 has lent a new urgency to an already worthwhile project.
The promise of the GTHE lies in ease and accessibility. There’s a searchable registry of credentialed care providers (general practitioners, dermatologists, dentists, therapists, etc.), each with her own blockchain zip code. Many of us have experienced first-hand, even in wealthy, well-served nations, making an appointment for today rather than weeks from today is a virtual impossibility. This will not be the case with GTHE; patients will be spoiled for choice. Where they are in relation to the doctors they wish to consult is immaterial. Whether he lives in Nebraska or Nairobi, if someone wants advice from a qualified physician of his choosing, advice is available at his convenience and without the possibility of exposure to COVID-19. This is just one of several advantages GTHE affords.
To find out more about this critical intervention, Dr. Hanekom’s video can be found here in full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CptDyomxEiE
