Searching symptoms online has become so common there is a name for the condition of health anxiety induced by self-diagnosis on the internet: Cyberchondria.
Insulin refusal is high among some patients.
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As diabetes progresses, insulin injections become the only treatment option. But the transition from oral medication to injectable insulin is often a bumpy one.
More and more people are experimenting with mental health apps and discovering their benefits and limits.
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Three experts answer questions about the effectiveness, safety and side effects of medication abortion, using mifepristone followed by misoprostol.
For decades, doctors and patients have used telemedicine. But it gained wider use when the COVID-19 pandemic led to canceled appointments and closed clinics.
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By creating both an urgent need for mental health care and the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the pandemic is enabling telemedicine to go mainstream.
Removing ultrasound and pelvic exam requirements for medication abortion could help expand access to care.
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During the pandemic, health care providers began prescribing abortion pills without requiring in-person exams. This practice could help people access the care they need when abortion rights are in limbo.
A key change in abortion care during the pandemic was that many providers offered some or all services via telemedicine.
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Pandemic-related travel restrictions and facility closures initially jeopardized access to abortions, but the pandemic has also become a catalyst for more accessible ways to deliver abortion care.
Virtual care is a way to deliver health-care services using technology to remotely connect patients and health professionals.
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Given the success of telehealth and virtual care during the pandemic, it would be a mistake to automatically return to pre-pandemic norms of health care.
Telemedical consultations can make abortion more accessible, more comfortable, and less expensive for users.
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Some countries made abortion access easier during the pandemic. Others used it as an excuse for a crackdown.
Given the observed and anticipated growth of telemedicine since the beginning of the pandemic, it would be a good idea to clarify and co-ordinate the rules applicable to it in Canada.
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Even during COVID-19, there are ways to keep your teeth healthy.
With more health resources devoted to COVID-19, non-COVID patients may have unmet health-care needs, which predict poorer health in the future.
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With COVID-19 placing heavy demands on the health-care system, non-COVID patients may struggle to access care, putting women, people in poor health and those without a regular doctor at risk.
The old-fashioned telephone – well, maybe not a rotary dial, but a phone nonetheless – became a way during the pandemic for patients to ‘see’ their doctors. Could this trend continue?
With the coronavirus risk, many therapy sessions have moved online to video calls.
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With most therapy sessions now online, a psychologist explores whether more self-disclosure by therapists – sharing more about their own lives – might help their patients.
Health systems have very quickly pivoted to providing services online, but there is much more to do if we’re to unlock remote healthcare’s full potential.
The late Youssef Cohen moved from New York to Oregon in 2016 because of its aid-in-dying law. During the pandemic, assisted dying for terminal patients has gone online.
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Terminally ill patients in nine states and Washington, DC can use telemedicine to get a doctor’s approval to hasten their end of life. But family members must mix the lethal drug cocktail themselves.