The Future of Medicine Might Be a Kiosk

The doctor is in - and so is the patient. JL

The Palm Beach Post reports:

Eventually, proponents of telemedicine see patients connecting with nutritionists and even mental health counselors. And one doesn’t need a space capsule-like module like the district’s kiosk to connect to a doctor. There are apps that will allow patients to use their tablet from home.
The future of medicine is a bright blue pod in the lobby of the headquarters for the Palm Beach County School District.
Within its private 8-by-7-foot enclosure, the district’s employees and their families can see on a television screen a doctor or nurse practitioner at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. Embedded in the wall is a blood pressure cuff, a stethoscope, a scale and other doctor tools that help take vitals. If needed, a prescription can be sent to the patient’s pharmacy.

Never before has there been a time when the delivery of medicine has been in such a state of flux and telemedicine is the tip of the spear of this change. It’s only matter of time when your family general practitioner could reside in another city, your specialist maybe even another country, telemedicine proponents say.

“I don’t know about you, but going to the doctor has always given me a little anxiety. I don’t know why — I hear maybe it’s a guy a thing,” School Superintendent Robert Avossa said.
He said the district’s new health care kiosk makes it easier “for employees to stay healthy, to be healthy, to find the time to put themselves first from time to time.”

Bruce Bennett

A new telemedicine service called HealthSpot was unveiled at the Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center in West Palm Beach Wednesday, July 22, 2015. (Bruce R. Bennett / The Palm Beach Post)

The kiosk manufactured by Ohio-based HealthSpot is the first to be in Palm Beach County and the third in South Florida. While Avossa, and representatives of Nicklaus, UnitedHealthcare and HealthSpot were on hand for the ribbon cutting Wednesday, the station has been available to the district’s 21,000 employees and their families for the past two weeks.
Barbera Rosero, administrative assistant to the IT department, said she used the kiosk when she started coming down with chills and a slight fever at work. The nurse practitioner diagnosed her with a cold and sent a prescription to her pharmacy.
“I think it’s great because you can’t always go see the doctor the same day you aren’t feeling well,” Rosero said.
On Wednesday, nurse practitioner Stella Leviyeva was on duty, her face beaming on a video screen in the module. She works 10-hour shifts, seeing between two and three patients an hour. Above her head, the patient can see their own vital signs, adding a new level of participation in the medical exam where the patient can be left wondering if that “hmmm” the doctor just murmured is about the blood pressure just taken or lunch plans.
Soon a doctor’s visit may be just a trip to the corner pharmacy away. HealthSpot just put 25 of its kiosks in Rite Aid across Ohio.
The kiosk is also a way for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to expand its footprint beyond Miami. Its doctors and nurse practitioners are using telemedicine to treat patients in the Ukraine, Mexico, Peru and other countries, said Dr. Narendra M. Kini, president and CEO of Nicklaus.
“It’s a 21st century effort in building out a network,” Kini said. “With the capabilites of the technology you can do screening, you can do prevention and counseling, you can do diagnostics and eventually you can do advance care.”
Eventually, proponents of telemedicine see patients connecting with nutritionists and even mental health counselors. And one doesn’t need a space capsule-like module like the district’s kiosk to connect to a doctor in Miami. There are apps that will allow patients to use their tablet from home.
Employers love it because it cuts down on possible sick days and can send infectious employees home before they spread a virus to other workers. Millenials love it because it’s just one more way they can interface with technology.
Nick Zaffiris, CEO for UnitedHealthcare of South Florida, said there are lower co-pays for telemedicine, and it it cuts down by as much as 60 percent unnecessary visits to the emergency room or urgent care clinic.
“If you look at health care right now, we are really in a changing environment and I see this delivering three things for our members: access to quality care in a convenient way at a reasonable price point.”
Impediments to telemedicine include some government regulation. A bill that failed in the Florida Legislature last session would have created statewide guidelines.
And what does all this mean for each family’s own Dr. Marcus Welby M.D.? Are family practitioners about to go the way of the stegosaurus?
Kini said telemedicine isn’t looking to replace the family doctor, but to make those doctors more accessible to more patients.
“The idea you can see patients anywhere, anytime and given them the specialty care that they need is an idea that is becoming more and more of a tool in the doctor’s kit,” he said. “Primary care practitioners are using it to extend their range.”