As the Manager of Data and Reporting at eVisit, I equip my colleagues and customers with data illustrating the journey that patients take through telehealth programs.
 
My second and unpaid job is to navigate my healthcare for the treatment of Bipolar Disorder, type I with psychotic features, along with a battery of other chronic mental and physical illnesses including ADHD.



I share this information not because it is easy to talk about mental illness in a professional


setting, I share these details so that in reading this you will understand the severe


consequences that could have ensued without access to quality telemedicine services.
 
Health technology is as much a pride of passion as it is
a necessity for me, and the story I bring to you today is a blanket example of why a product like e
Visit, the leading telemedicine platform enables hospital systems to support the digitization of
their existing clinical teams, is an essential component of a modern health platform.


 
While I thrive in the hustle and bustle of a manager position at a budding startup, my second job


is something I can be honest about my ongoing struggle with. Poor memory fueled by


organizational blunders makes keeping up with a consistent care team and ongoing medical


treatments incredibly challenging.
 
For this reason, I often find myself turning to as-needed
psychiatric telemedicine practices for last-minute medication refills. It doesn’t give me the
coordinated care that I need as a patient with a serious mental illness, but it keeps me on my
medication and 90% of the time that is enough.


 
Over the past month, my stress levels have been exacerbating my psychotic symptoms, though


who knows which was the chicken and which was the egg in this situation. As I was in my usual


habit of seeing my as-needed psychiatrist I attended another appointment with him to discuss


tweaking my medicine to address these worsening symptoms. What happened next is a shining


example of the strength of the telemedicine care model.



The psychiatrist I had happened to be seeing semi-regularly because he was the first option


prompted to me by the care platform each time I signed on made it clear that my symptoms


were to the point where I needed to seek a higher level of care. He referred me to an intensive


outpatient program and urged me to establish more regular interactions with a more consistent


care team.
 
His referral was right on the money because the next night I had a psychotic episode


that led me to the emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation. After some much-needed


medication adjustments and support in creating that care team, I was released in time to begin


my intensive outpatient program.



My new psychiatrist: online. My new psychologist: online. The intensive outpatient treatment


program: online. The dietician to address weight gain side effects of psychiatric medications:


online.



My recent experience in a world without telehealth would have looked much different. Is it


possible that I could have made an in-person psychiatric appointment with as fast a turnaround?