Common myths on digital healthcare
NURS 491 - Nursing Management (D)
Liberty University
Name
2022
Introduction
Digital health is becoming more and more streamlined and commonly used in today’s world. Quite a lot
of people agree that digital health care has quite a few benefits. From streamlining healthcare
processes to making them more accessible, most agree that digital health solutions are beneficial.
However, with the rise in popularity, as with most things, rumors gave rise to myths. Some of these
myths are outright lies, while others are misunderstandings. Unfortunately, this leads to some more
cynical people shying away from trying out digital health services. So, we’ve decided to put some of
these myths to rest in order to hopefully dispel some confusion. We’ve compiled a list of the most
common myths about digital health, and we hope you find it informative.
Digital mental health support is impersonal and, therefore, ineffective
One of the most common myths about digital health involves the very serious issue of mental health.
Mental health is a common issue today, and many rely on mental health support. Furthermore, a rumor
started circulating that digital mental health support is impersonal, which doesn’t help. However, this is
just a blatant lie, as quite a lot of people are actively signing up for digital mental health support.
Additionally, the introduction of digital mental health support has made it much more accessible. Before
this, there were massive queues, and people had to wait months before getting help. These
days, mental health services are much more accessible thanks to digital mental health support. Overall,
digital health has been nothing but a benefit in this field and has brought many people the help they
need much faster than they would’ve received it previously.
Test results are too complicated for you to understand in an online format
This is another one of the myths about digital health that’s just untrue. While it’s true that, at first
glance, test results might seem confusing and complicated, when taking a closer look, they’re relatively
easy to understand. Additionally, for anything you don’t understand, you can simply look up an
explanation online. So, while initially, you might be confused, putting in just a little bit of effort will let
you easily understand the document. Additionally, accessing your test results online means you don’t
have to make a trip to the doctor’s to pick them up.
All in all, this means that you can receive your results much faster than you would normally. This is only
one way that digital health solutions are helping make healthy living more accessible. Overall, we’d
argue that the effort of reading through the test results is nothing compared to the effort of going to get
them.
Digital health is only helpful for healthcare providers
Digital health is indeed a massive benefit for healthcare providers, as it helps them streamline workflow
and reduce redundancies. However, health care provided in a timely and effective manner is much more
helpful to the patient. By reducing wait times, digital health improves chronic disease management and,
in general, increases engagement. Finally, and most importantly, with easy access to their health
information, patients are much less likely to use after-hour or urgent services. So this helps reduce the
risks for patients while allowing healthcare providers to streamline workflow. It’s a win-win situation for
both sides. However, experts from Little Creek Recovery note that patients shouldn’t act on information
they don’t fully understand. So, if your health information confuses you in any way, even after research,
consider talking to a professional. After all, it’s much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your
health.
The quality of digital health is worse than in-person visits
There is a belief that a virtual visit isn’t effective in solving a patient’s problems. And while it’s true that
sometimes you need more than digital health services, most typical problems can be solved using digital
health. As a matter of fact, solving health issues through virtual visits has a couple of benefits. For one, it
saves time for both the patient and the doctor, which is vital when trying to stop a problem in its
tracks. Secondly, and more importantly, a virtual visit means bypassing the doctor and possibly exposing
yourself to other illnesses. It’s nearly impossible to guarantee you won’t run into another ill person while
going to the doctor. This risks you catching another illness and worsening the problem, which doesn’t
happen during a virtual visit. So, digital health solutions are completely riskless in this regard.
You can’t access your digital health records
This myth is another blatant lie, as you can request access to your digital health records at any time. This
is done through your health record trustee and generally takes almost no time to go through. And, even
with having to put in a request, this is much faster than accessing your health records normally. Having
to go to the doctor and request access in person, then waiting for your records to be brought to
you, takes a lot more time than doing it from the comfort of your home. So, with digital health, you can
easily access your health records at any point. So, if you ever need to look up anything in your records,
you can do it right from your computer. Needless to say, this is yet another case in which digital health
streamlines the process quite a bit.
The most common myths about digital health – wrap up
Digital health solutions have been gaining popularity quite quickly in the modern day. And for a good
reason. Digital access to health care has streamlined the process for both patients and doctors. This, in
turn, leads to healthcare being much more accessible to everyone and much more quickly. Overall, this
has been incredibly beneficial, especially when it comes to mental health. We hope that this list of the
most common myths about digital health has helped disperse some confusion, and we wish you a great
rest of your day.
