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by Lindsey Francy Feb 5, 2023 News
Gen Z is using TikTok as a search engine. Is this the end of Google?

A friendly face appears on the screen while I sit in a white booth that looks like a doctor's office and I'm a little nervous.

A stethoscope, a blood pressure monitor, an oximeter, and other scope are attached to the walls and I will be instructed to use them on myself during my teleconsultation.

As France struggles with a shortage of doctors, its worst-hit regions are rolling out hi-tech telemedicine booths, where patients can conduct their own checkup while on a video call with a physician in another part of the country

A controversial solution to a very human problem being repeated across Europe is what it is.

France's healthcare system is considered to be one of the best in the world, but it is facing a demographic crisis in which doctors are not being replaced where they are needed the most.

One in 10 people in France don't have a general doctor, and 30 percent live in a medical desert.

It is nearly impossible to see a doctor in those areas due to the fact that there aren't any nearby or that the few in the area are so busy that they don't take new patients.

Tech can help fill the gap in places like Montréal-la-Cluse, a village east of Lyon.

More and more people are coming to this region to live. The manager of a local pharmacy said that when doctors retire, they aren't being replaced.

TheConsult Station is a hi-tech booth that allows patients to conduct their own physical exam while talking to a doctor on a screen.

Playing doctor

You can take your temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen level and heart rate with the help of the doctor.

The high-definition imagery can be shared with the doctor in real time with other scopes.

The doctor tells you to insert these at the right angle and to adjust the focusing wheel a bit like you would using binoculars, but your target is not a rare bird but your swollen tonsils or your eardrum.

It isn't pretty if you're sick and the doctor sees a lot of graphic information.

The H4D booth was especially useful when it came to rhinopharyngitis, a sore throat or a sinusitis, according to Dr. Mehats.

It's similar to being in a doctor's office. He said there was no difference in the quality of the exam.

Patients can use a connected dermatoscope to look for moles and freckles. They will appear on the screen as if they are under a microscope and the doctor will be able to see if any of them look suspicious.

Handling all these applications requires a powerful internet connection, so H4D collaborated with Bouygues Telecom to provide a wireless 5G hotspot.

If needed, the company could connect it to a satellite.

The local authorities paid 100,000 for the booth to be installed in October 2020. It now sees about 30 patients a week.

No other choice

There are limits to the technology. When a patient makes an appointment online, they are screened. They can't make a booking if they have neurological symptoms.

The doctor can alert the emergency services if something goes wrong during the teleconsultation.

The tech may seem intimidating, but there are people inside the medical centre who can help patients, give instructions and make sure the booth is free of bugs.

The patients who come here get a medical answer and know that they can come back. Some patients come back because they don't have a doctor yet.

The cost of a teleconsultation is the same as a doctor's visit.

Some people in the village are not willing to try it. Several elderly people were questioned in the pharmacy and said they didn't want to see a doctor in person.

The cabin was better than nothing according to others who tried it.

The pharmacy manager said that the patients were very satisfied with the booth. It doesn't fit with the idea of a family doctor and the ability to follow up.

‘Why can’t doctors also work from home?’

H4D has rolled out around 140 of its booths so far and it has 100 more in the works. France is its main market, but it also ships to Italy, Portugal, and the UK.

Medadom and Tessan are two of the companies that are rolling out telemedicine booths.

Everyone needs access to healthcare. The way doctors and the population are spread out is not evenly distributed.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has made telemedicine more acceptable to patients, and the tech surrounding it is getting smarter.

i-Virtual received EU certification for its new technology, which can monitor vital signs using just a 30-second selfies. The blood flow through a patient's skin is analysed by 'Caducy'.

A clinical trial on over 1000 patients showed 95 percent accuracy. It wants to license the tech to teleconsultation and telesurveillance platforms to give healthcare professionals quick insight into their patients vital signs.

Myriam Benfatto is the marketing manager at i-Virtual.

She said that it reduces unnecessary trips to a doctor's office and can be added to a tablet that a nurse could carry around from one patient to the next.

She said there were two schools.

There is one school that is more traditional in its approach to digital health. Some people are very excited about the possibility of saving time. She said that people realize that digital is part of their lives.

I was recently told by a doctor that people can work from home but not doctors. He wanted them to be able to do some things remotely.

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