Technology can also help when services are absent. Teleconsultation has experienced a great boom in its deployment after trust. But it also serves doctors, nurses, specialists and others to multiply patients and compensate the gaps in certain regions of France. Add to that the multiplication of connected objects that allow it to have a first (non -medical) opinion, either due to its heart rate, temperature, oxygenation rate in the blood or stress. Welcome to the Era of Medicine 2.0.
Founded in 2017, Meadom had the idea of a medical telecentration platform that would be equipped with health devices to help diagnosis. “From 2020 and confinement, we have gone from 100,000 to 30 million teleconsultations per year,” said the company’s team. Therefore, this has designed three types of machines to meet demand, but also according to the available spaces. Meadom offers a wheel terminal, a cabin or in more compact format around a console to place on a table.
Avoid the “uberization” of doctors
It all starts with a questionnaire to fill (Reason for consultation, weight, size, history, etc.), then a doctor takes the teleconsultation and can trust the Meadom terminal. Because each support embeds many medical devices (a thermometer, a stethoscope, an otoscope, an oximeter, a tensiometer and a dermatoscope). The teleconsultation doctor will help the patient to carry out the exams by guiding him. Therefore, you will get the results instantly.
In case of abnormal parameters, the values appear in red and the distance doctor knows that it can request a verification of the correct use of a nearby person (pharmacist, town hall staff, etc.). It is this person who will also be a reference to guarantee good use and cleanliness after consultation.
Meadom is also based on a mobile application and a website to make teleconsultations, but without devices. What also carries out balances with the company’s employees. “The practitioners are attached to Meadom, because we want to avoid the ‘suberization’ of medicine and especially we want to have a bearing of doctors available,” adds a manager, and emphasizes that the service is available in France, but also in the departments and territories of the French abroad and that it is necessary to handle several hours.
Because although the Ministry of Health and its competitors’ telecentration companies (Livi, Tessan Med, Medaviz and Qare), Meadom does not work as doctolib. If you make an appointment through the terminal, the most confidential cabin or the console, the practitioner who faces the one who can be located anywhere in France (first is chosen near if it is available). However, you must wait sometimes, but Meadom undertakes to take care of in less than 45 minutes.
The teleconsultation doctor is alerted to possible health problems, frequent work stops recorded in the patient’s archive “to avoid excess teleconsultation.” In case of severe identified symptoms, in addition to the care sheet, an additional exam letter can be generated. Then it is possible to print it in pharmacies or in the City Council.
However, this enters the health course. You present your vital card at the beginning of the process and your usual information is shared. Sector 1 Convenience, teleconsultation is invoiced 25 euros with 7.50 euros in charge (reimbursable for mutual). Only excesses of conventional rates are increased (night or nightlife, vacations, Sunday …). Access is not authorized for children under three or children under 16 not accompanied.
Terminals in pharmacies, municipalities and now in optics
It is estimated that by 2027, more than 27 million people will live in medical deserts. Teleconsultation services can be an interesting alternative for emergency cases, but cannot replace a reference doctor. You have very few chances of finding the same practitioner in case of different meetings.
“We are trying to configure where sometimes there are no more pharmacies, in the municipalities of medical deserts,” explains the company that has about 5,000 terminals in the territory. “The municipalities can offer these kinds of things so that their fellow citizens access the attention. It also makes people come in the places where we are installed.”
For salaried doctors, there is also an organizational advantage. They have a list of pending patients, previously full pathologies and all the necessary upstream data of the teleconsultation to be more effective. A while saving for everyone.
It is difficult to know the cost of a municipality or a pharmacist during the installation of the physical platform in its facilities, or the maintenance costs to be waiting for each month, Meadom remains mysterious at this point. But the company welcomes the generalization of its telecentration devices that have also received the approval of the Ministry of Health (such as the platforms of its competitors). The optics are also beginning to be interested in it and will appear in several Optic 2000, Krys, Alain AFFLau or independent stores.
The announced objective is also to equip up to 1,000 optics by 2026. Enough to meet the time limits of ophthalmologists with about 400 orthoptists and ophthalmologists participated in the coming months.
These facilities must allow to respond quickly to the requests for renewal of glasses and lenses, but also to the detection of visual disorders. It is estimated in France that has been an appointment for two months, an even higher rate in medical deserts. Teleconsultation can also be a solution for certain specialties, even if health insurance as estimated platforms in 2024 that practices refers to many patients in urban areas, almost more than rural people.
Source: BFM TV
