Tele-health Services – Can “Virtual” be as Good as “Real”?

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has pronounced unimaginable ripples in the normal functioning of the world we live in and has also compelled us to bring a paradigm shift in health-care provisions and how we practice it. Telehealth services have almost dramatically replaced traditional in-person treatment, especially in mental health services. This significant change in the practice of medicine has forced us to question our very perception of ideal health care. Telemedicine will do for health care what the personal computer has done for the office. Or so its proponents believe. Its opponents believe that it represents a threat to the doctor–patient relationship and is an intrinsically unsafe way of practicing medicine. In this brief clinical update, we delve into the core of telemental health services and try to unravel its impact on human lives during this pandemic.