Med-Surg · chapter 37 · Trends in Health-Care Technology
Telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence
The 14 things this section of the textbook says that you are most likely to be asked about — quoted word for word, not retold. Then 3 practice questions with the reasoning.
Key points
Nursing in digital health
High-tech devices are developed and implemented to improve patient care, but they will never replace the importance of human touch and compassion. Consequently, nurses must play a role in the digital evolution of health care, as they leverage new technologies to optimize workflows and achieve better patient health outcomes.
Telemedicine visit limits
While the delivery of virtual health care continues to increase in popularity and frequency, it may not be appropriate for all situations. For example, conditions that require the provider to physically assess the patient or perform diagnostic testing still require a face-to-face visit.
Emergencies need in-person care
Emergencies such as severe trauma, acute chest pain, or sudden neurological deficits demand immediate in-person evaluation to ensure timely and accurate treatment.
Patient-supplied telemedicine data
The patient may be asked to supply the provider with their weight, vital signs, laboratory values, and symptoms. Additional documentation, such as images and medical records, may also be uploaded by the patient to ensure the provider has all information needed to accurately diagnose the problem.
Telemedicine access benefits
Patients can conveniently access care from their current location, eliminating the need to travel, take time off work, or arrange childcare, thereby reducing associated costs.
Specialty access through telemedicine
Additionally, telemedicine provides enhanced access to specialized providers, regardless of geographical constraints, while also minimizing wait times for appointments, lowering exposure to potential health risks, and increasing patient engagement and adherence to treatment (Vicente et al., 2022).
Telemedicine and hospitalizations
Research has shown that patients who participate in telemedicine visits experience lower hospitalization rates (Campion et al., 2023; Pande et al., 2015; Peters et al., 2021).
Cultural considerations in telemedicine
By integrating these cultural considerations into telemedicine practices, health-care providers can ensure care is inclusive, respectful, and effective in meeting the diverse needs of their patients.
COVID-19 telemedicine growth
Within the first three months of the pandemic, telemedicine encounters increased by 766 percent, from 0.3 percent to 23.6 percent of all encounters (Shaver, 2022).
Telemedicine during pandemic
The widespread adoption of telemedicine played a crucial role in reducing disease transmission, facilitating triage care, ensuring uninterrupted access to health-care services, and safeguarding the well-being of patients, providers, and the entire community (Shaver, 2022).
AI benefits and challenges
AI has the potential to increase the efficiency, accuracy, and speed at which health care is delivered. While there are benefits to AI, potential challenges include data privacy concerns, risk of error, and the inability of AI to demonstrate wisdom or compassion—both of which are essential to the delivery of health care.
AI complements providers
As such, AI is not intended to replace the provider. Rather, AI is intended to complement the provider so care can be delivered more efficiently, allowing providers more time to spend with their patients.
Telemonitoring patient outcomes
Telemonitoring has proven to be effective at monitoring both acute and chronic conditions. Research has shown telemonitoring to be particularly useful in improving patient outcomes for heart failure, stroke, COPD, asthma, and hypertension (Noah et al., 2018).
AI diagnosis responsibility
While AI may be used to help providers make more informed patient care decisions and reduce the likelihood of misdiagnosis, it should not be used in solitude to diagnose a patient. AI can generate predictions; however, it is the responsibility of the health-care provider to apply their clinical judgment and expertise to accurately interpret the predictions and arrive at a diagnosis.
Terms to know
- informatics
- The discipline of informatics, the science of information, plays a pivotal role in harnessing these technological advancements within health-care organizations.
- telemedicine
- The remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology is called telemedicine.
- artificial intelligence (AI)
- Encompassing computer science and comprehensive data sets, artificial intelligence (AI) focuses on leveraging technology to address and solve complex problems, enabling machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.
- machine learning
- AI analyzes data by using algorithms and models that recognize patterns in data to emulate how humans learn, a process known as machine learning.
- telemonitoring
- The practice of monitoring aspects of a patient’s health from a remote location is called telemonitoring.
- Patient data management systems (PDMSs)
- Patient data management systems (PDMSs) are comprehensive software solutions designed to manage and organize patient-related data within health-care facilities.
Practice questions
Stuck on select-all-that-apply? How to take them one option at a time.
The graded version needs JavaScript. Every question is below anyway, with the answer and why.
Every question here, with the answer
At 0900, a triage nurse suspects conjunctivitis after a patient reports a crusted, red right eye and no foreign object. A same-day telemedicine visit is proposed. The patient has a mobile phone, but internet access has not been discussed. Which next step should the nurse include in the triage plan?
- Confirm access to a computer because a mobile phone is insufficient for the visit.
- Arrange an in-person visit because eye redness requires a physical examination.
- Verify internet access before completing the telemedicine arrangements.
- Complete video-visit scheduling because having a mobile phone establishes readiness.
Answer: Verify internet access before completing the telemedicine arrangements.
The section's scheduling process includes confirming internet access as well as access to a mobile phone or computer; a phone alone does not establish both. It also presents suspected conjunctivitis as appropriate for telemedicine, so neither an automatic in-person visit nor a computer-only requirement is supported.
At 1000, while preparing a telemedicine consultation, a nurse receives a request from a family member to participate in the patient's health-care decisions. The patient has not yet expressed a preference about family involvement. Which plan should the nurse document?
- Include the family member because the request indicates that family participation is important.
- Ask whether the patient wants the family member involved and obtain the patient's consent before including them.
- Allow the family member to join only the closing discussion based on the family's request.
- Keep the consultation patient-only to maintain confidentiality during telemedicine.
Answer: Ask whether the patient wants the family member involved and obtain the patient's consent before including them.
The section supports family participation when the patient desires and consents to it. A family member's request does not establish patient consent, and limiting participation to the closing discussion does not resolve that gap. Automatically excluding family also overlooks the patient's preference.
At 1500, after teaching a patient about an AI-supported telemedicine service, the nurse is documenting the patient's understanding of AI's intended role. Which patient statements support accurate understanding? Select all that apply.
- The chatbot's initial assessment can serve as my provider's final assessment.
- Making care more efficient can give my provider more time to spend with me.
- Once the AI learns enough patterns, it can provide the same wisdom and compassion as my provider.
- The main goal is to reduce the time my provider spends interacting with me.
- The AI should support my provider rather than take my provider's place.
Answer: Making care more efficient can give my provider more time to spend with me., The AI should support my provider rather than take my provider's place.
AI is intended to complement the provider and improve efficiency, allowing more time with patients. Its initial assessment does not replace the provider's role, and efficiency is not presented as a reason to reduce patient interaction. The section also identifies AI's inability to demonstrate wisdom or compassion.
Where every quote comes from
Section 37.1 Telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence of Medical-Surgical Nursing by Christy Bowen, Bridget Carey, Jessica Palozie, Maren Reinholdt, OpenStax, 2024. Read the whole section free at openstax.org.
The textbook is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This page quotes it word for word and adds the headings, the order and the practice questions; references to the book's figures and stray spaces left by its formatting are removed. The page is shared under the same licence. Nothing here is sold.