Techniker Krankenkasse tests online consultation for the first time

Health insurance tested online consultation with dermatologists
The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) is about to start a project in which consultations with dermatologists are to take place via online video. In the future, patients should be spared ways and waiting times.

Via video telephony for online consultation
In the future, consultations over the Internet will save patients time and latency. As the news agency dpa reports, the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) wants to start a corresponding pilot project together with dermatologists on 1 September. The professional association of German dermatologists (BVDD) had already reported a few months ago on the plans for video consultation hours with the dermatologist. Here patient and doctor are to be brought together by video telephony to the on-line consultation hour. As has been communicated, it can be started from any computer with an internet browser and a conventional webcam. According to the TK, the software will be supplied by the Lübeck-based company Patientus.

The technician Kankenkassen tests the use of the online consultation. (Image: Andrey Popov / fotolia.com)

Discuss diagnosis and therapy in personal contact
The health insurance explained that online consultations should also relieve doctors' practices. However, this is not always possible. Thus diagnosis and therapy would have to be discussed in personal contact. Among other things, the project will test whether the online consultation is an alternative or supplement to repetitive appointments in practice. "Once the patient has been to my practice, a quick glance and a short conversation are often sufficient for follow-up - in the future, no patient will have to make it to my surgery," Dr. Klaus Strömer in a press release. The dermatologist, who is also president of the BVDD, is one of the first physicians to test the program.

Telemedicine as a measure against rural doctors shortage
"Video consultation, for example, seems to be particularly suitable for discussing a change in medication. Or to clarify the course of the disease - for example, wound healing after an operation - as well as for the review of the therapeutic success or for patient training in the course of a longer treatment, "said Strömer. The TK announced that now - after the system has passed all necessary technical tests - should be worked with selected practices. Online consultation hours should be possible in all practices. The black-red federal government has been campaigning for a long time for the expansion of telemedicine. At the beginning of the year, the chairperson of the conference of health ministers, Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (SPD), announced that telemedicine was useful as a measure against the shortage of doctors in rural areas. (Ad)