TECH

BOSTON-QUALITY MEDICAL CARE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Offers CuttingEdge Advances in Health Care Options for Patients

BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER (BIDMC), UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF THE BETH ISRAEL LAHEY HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, IS CENTERED IN THE CITY OF BOSTON. EMPLOYING OVER 4,000 DOCTORS AND 35,000 DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, THE WORLD-CLASS TEACHING HOSPITAL OF HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL REACHES COMMUNITIES SURROUNDING THE CITY OF BOSTON AND ITS SUBURBS, TO PLYMOUTH AND CAPE COD.

With passionate care, modern technology, and groundbreaking research and educational advancements, their comprehensive network delivers valuable health care services through its academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, along with community and specialty hospitals.

This story is about my first-hand experience with cuttingedge medical technology. It isn’t from an experimental lab or a bio-medical discovery; rather, it’s related to an episode of the Jetsons, an American animated sitcom of the ’60s.

This brief, but modern-day chronicle began with the spread of the Coronavirus throughout our major cities back in March. Once the disease expanded into nearly every community in the country—causing most states to impose stay-at-home restrictions, a.k.a “Lockdown” shortly after, hospitals had little time to react. Medical centers began to shut down and cease all elective care, only to open its doors to emergency needs, deliver babies, or to treat cases of COVID-19.

For many, the dilemma of seeing their doctors and nurses for follow-ups, routine appointments, or ongoing evaluations would be troubling, if not impossible, to arrange.

I am one of these patients. I see my physician every three months and have always taken these visits to Boston for granted. The plan works like this; an hour to the city, one hour to sign in, wait for the appearance of my doctor and the rotating resident, a 20 minute evaluation, check out, and its an hour back home. Sometimes annoying, these three hour blocks of time—when you’re busy, can interfere with scheduling and work. But, to see professionals at this level of expertise always resolves my inner conflict and soothes my frustrations.

Although my appointments are an essential part of my treatment protocol, if I miss one, it might not be life-threatening, but it’s not advisable due to the type of medication I have been prescribed. It is because of my needing close monitoring, and the inability to gain access to the clinic, the restrictions imposed upon my doctor and me quickly turning into an unexpected burden.

A couple of weeks before the appointment, which I knew was to be canceled, I received a call from the practice’s representative. Cutting his formal introduction short, I got right to the point and asked when I could reschedule. His response, “Well, we could do that, or I have a suggestion.” Surprised, but not understanding, I listened carefully.

For the next ten minutes, I learned what options Beth Israel was working on, and how the unimaginable advancements of “Telemedicine” was now a reality.

Of course, I had heard of early developments of this form of medical service, initially, with a doctor and patient speaking on the phone—this was about a dozen or more years ago. But what I learned on this day was entirely different, it seems that computer technology and realtime communication had advanced well beyond what it was capable of doing just one year prior.

Most of us have tried to stream programs or news while online and have found it less than appealing; buffering, stalling, or poorly synched voice and video always made it unpleasant to watch.

The customer service representative I spoke with was atypical, not just an appointment jockey; he had comprehensive knowledge about the hospital’s move to use telecommunication technology to provide clinical services through imaging, consultation, diagnosis, and prescribing medications for patients.

This new and revolutionary advancement, often referred to as “Interactive Medicine,” was shockingly interesting to me as he patiently explained the cost-benefits of BMIDC’s “Virtual Visit” and how it would meet the challenges of the health crisis the nation faces.

I need to confess; while the pitch sounded good to me, in the back of my mind I had concerns about internet security, what the quality of the connection between my laptop and the hospital would be, the efficacy of the clinical appointment (considering I still had a co-pay), and how I would later interpret the lack of physical face to face interaction with my physician.

Added to this, and as ridiculous as it may sound, I experienced trepidation at the thought of stepping outside the traditional doctor-patient paradigm and into a new world of clinical treatment.

With all of this, I agreed with the replacement appointment and waited for instructions to follow.

The next day I received my patient appointment confirmation and instructions in an email. It had my name, the name of the doctor, and our appointed time to meet. The graphics weren’t bad, and I intuitively entered the system and set up an account. The first page came with a “Tips for Success” card, which built my confidence.

However, directions to set up an account are more confusing than the effort it takes to complete; I found them to be oddly composed in a narrative format, filled with distracting colors, unnecessary underlined type, and excessive bold print. These steps were confusing and resembled the assembling directions found in a box of Ikea furniture.

Once you get over the confusion, the process flattens out, and personal information is found to have been already put into the program and is readily available under tabs like; Health Profile, Care Management, Visits, Files, and Settings for additions and corrections if needed.

On the day of my appointment, an email arrived and requested me to sign in and go to the digital waiting room 15 minutes before my meeting. This step was easy and put me into the cue with other patients.

Shortly thereafter, my doctor appeared on a small screen (lower left on mine) with me in a small box next to her, and the new resident was taking up a prominent position. Fascinating was the ability to cut documents and information from files and paste them into the live messaging tab for discussion in realtime.

Initially, I was apprehensive about the conference, so much so, that on many days prior to the appointment, I considered canceling because it caused me so much concern. Each time I internally argued over my original thoughts in an attempt to validate my first impressions of this new technology. But, here I was, having the most rewarding experience possible. I found myself enjoying the three-way conversation with the two doctors, coming to realize the exchange was better than what I recall many of my in-person appointments had been. I was thrilled to be part of an astounding advancement in health care and could see the value added to a person’s healthcare plan.

Some may consider this movement towards digital appointments a means for insurance companies to make more money by cutting fees paid to hospitals and with hospitals using Telemed to increase their doctor’s caseload—resulting in added revenue. But, from what I’ve learned, it is expensive for hospitals to set up these systems and maintain them, while insurance providers are compensating doctors at the same rates as personal visits.

COMING SOON! STUDIO4