Telemedicine has received a powerful boost to development not only due to the improvement of Internet technologies, but also due to the fact of forced necessity, which was activated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. A huge number of services, including medical ones, have moved to an online format, which has given impetus to the development of technologies and increased the openness of doctors to telemedicine technologies. In 2024, compared to 2020, the medical market has almost doubled, and coronavirus restrictions, which have actualized a number of acute problems in the healthcare system of many countries around the world, played an important role in the development of this area.
Telemedicine involves various types of use of medical technologies related to the provision of medical services remotely. These can be both “doctor-to-doctor” and “doctor-to-patient” telemedicine consultations, as well as consultations, live broadcasts of surgeries, ultrasound examinations, MRI, CT and other medical procedures. Separately, we can highlight the segment of remote monitoring of the patient’s health using various portable devices. It should be noted that people most actively turn to telemedicine for remote consultations either in case of need to get a second opinion from a doctor (for example, based on the results of some research), or for consultation on a problem that a person is embarrassed to go to an in-person appointment with. Telemedicine is of considerable importance for improving access to treatment for erectile dysfunction, given that a very significant number of men do not dare to contact a specialist, feeling embarrassed and not being ready to talk about their problem. For patients with erectile dysfunction, telemedicine is also useful in helping to keep the condition under control by making it easier to obtain prescriptions for medications and provide feedback to the doctor about their effects on the patient’s body.
Advantages of telemedicine
The main advantages of using telemedicine services can be described as accessibility and confidentiality. Telemedicine allows patients to receive specialized care, primary and secondary examinations, chronic disease monitoring, remote diagnostics, treatment adjustments and long-term observation as an alternative to expensive face-to-face visits. However, each country, and often even within one country, has different legislative restrictions and features of the use of telemedicine technologies. It should be noted that services provided only by audio communication, e-mail or fax (i.e., carried out single-channel, not multimodal) are generally not classified as telemedicine services. This requires two-way audiovisual interaction in real time. Telemedicine makes qualified medical care much more accessible to patients living in remote or sparsely populated areas.
How does telemedicine work in the treatment of erectile dysfunction
Telemedicine for the treatment of erectile dysfunction does not require the patient to come to the doctor for a personal appointment. Telemedicine platforms are changing the face of modern healthcare by offering assessment and treatment of various diseases, including erectile dysfunction, in private from the patient’s home. In order for the doctor to understand the details of the disease of a particular patient, direct contact with the patient is important, discussing various issues related to therapy after filling out a standard online appointment form. It is more of a preliminary anamnesis collection. For a comprehensive assessment and treatment of erectile dysfunction, telemedicine services should be organized with a guarantee of confidentiality and the ability to obtain prescriptions for drugs, primarily PDE-5 inhibitors. It should be noted that telemedicine cannot in all cases be a full-fledged replacement for an in-person appointment with a doctor, but even if such a need arises, for example, for an ultrasound examination, it can give the patient the opportunity to save a lot of time and money. For example, telemedicine can be used to obtain recommendations for blood tests for various hormones, which are often prescribed for erectile dysfunction. Today, the most commonly used tools and platforms are Blink Health, BlueChew, GoodRx Care, HendRX, Hims, iLiveActive, K Health, KwikMed, Lemonaid Health, Optum, RedBoxRx, RexMD, Roman, Strut, TIN Rx and others. Consultations are held in the format of video conference sessions, diagnostics are based on the study of the symptoms of the disease, available examination data. The doctor gives recommendations or writes an online prescription.
Challenges and limitations
It should be understood that today there are a number of problems and limitations in the use of telemedicine for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. In some cases, to establish an accurate diagnosis and, accordingly, to issue recommendations for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, it is necessary to resort to such medical studies as transrectal ultrasound of the prostate gland, which, naturally, cannot be done using telemedicine. The use of telemedicine in urology is more limited than, for example, in psychiatry. However, the remote format of providing medical care does not prevent a relatively detailed collection of anamnesis, a conversation with the patient and the study of his medical history. An important point is the problem of data confidentiality and patient safety. The patient must be confident that his data is securely protected and will not fall into the hands of third parties. It is necessary to provide encrypted video communications and secure cloud storage of data to prevent their interception by third parties.
In telemedicine diagnostics, a distinction is often made between the “final” diagnosis (i.e. the diagnosis given by the doctor to the patient) and the “interim” diagnosis (e.g. consultation on the interpretation of pathological and radiological tests), which can be considered implicit, as well as in cases where telemedicine consultations take place between doctors.
Today, telemedicine should be understood more as another way of providing medical care than as an independent medical service.
Development prospects
Promising technologies in healthcare telemedicine include chatbots, virtual physician assistants, robotic surgery, precision medicine, medical dosing, diagnostics, workflow optimization, cybersecurity, etc. The number of startups in the field of artificial intelligence in medicine is constantly growing. The most common application of big data in healthcare is electronic health record (EHR) systems. EHR allows storing digital documentation such as medical history, demographic data, lab results, diagnoses, etc. Each record is stored in a single file that can be modified. This saves doctors from destructive paperwork and serves as a valuable statistical source.
Telemedicine is rapidly developing, and the key factor in its use in the treatment of erectile dysfunction is the timely initiation of treatment and increasing the patient’s awareness of the state of his intimate health.
Telemedicine is a convenient, inexpensive for patients and promising branch of medicine, which contributes to a significant increase in the number of men who will turn to doctors about their problems with potency. This contributes to an increase in both the cases of detection of erectile dysfunction and the level of its cure or control. It is important to continue to develop technologies such as streaming video communication, artificial intelligence, big data systems and other innovative developments that can improve the effectiveness of treating patients with erectile function using telemedicine.
