Medical advances are becoming increasingly technically sophisticated. Sometimes, it almost seems as if physicians now need to get a minor in Computer Science to do their work.
However, on the bright side, many aspects of medical technology are now no more difficult to use than sending an email. Many testing machines, for example, are as simple as turning the knobs on a handheld device. An EMG machine can use the cloud to provide a perfectly accurate reading.
A Common Scenario
Primary care physicians often see patients who have symptoms of neuropathy. The most common issues arise from sedentary office work, where people spend most of their working day sitting in front of a computer tapping on a keyboard and manipulating a mouse. Consequently, symptoms like neck pain, carpal tunnel, and lower back pain are common.
While these physicians may recognize the symptoms quickly, based on experience, they still need a diagnostic confirmation. A hunch is not enough to make an accurate diagnosis. As a result, they have to outsource testing to a third-party. This is not only inconvenient for the patient but the physician as well—as it may take several weeks to get the results back.
You Know Your Patients Better Than a Technician
If you’re a primary care physician, you realize that the medical technicians who do the testing for you, don’t know the patients as well as you do. All they can do is just follow your orders as best they can based on your initial impression of what's going on with your patient.
As a result of this scarcity of instructions, the testing may not be as thorough as you would have liked. In the worst case scenario, you may have to send your patient back for some other tests. What if, for example, you now suspect your patient has more than just lower back pain, but may also have diabetic neuropathy, too? This is not something you want to postpone for the next time they come to see you.
However, imagine if you could do all the testing yourself? What's more, imagine if you could do it in the convenience of your own offices.
You would save time, money, and aggravation if you could just use the equipment yourself. Also, you would avoid all the scheduling headaches. Fortunately, with advances in medical science, you can now get a portable machine about the size of a cell phone that you can hook up to the cloud. This is what EMG cloud does for you.
Essentially, you get the handheld machine, the training on how to use it, from putting the electrodes in the patient’s hands to setting the dials, and the computer printouts. After you perform the testing procedure, the cloud EMG will build out a patient report for you. The outline takes about 15 seconds to generate. You will get easy-to-read charts. Even your patients will be able to interpret them based on your explanations.
Although this may sound a little too good to be true, it’s just another advance in medical science that you can put to use to build up your practice. Already tens of thousands of primary care physicians are able to perform their own tests every day. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. Patients don’t have to go elsewhere for testing and you don’t have to rely on a technician’s expertise to see if your intuition was spot on. The big picture looks good, too. From a business perspective, you can describe your services as one that provides EMG and nerve conduction tests.
3 Benefits of Doing Your Own Neurological Testing
Should you do your own testing?
Here are 3 benefits of doing it in-house:
- You won’t have scheduling nightmares. Sending your patients out for a routine EMG test will take time. Your results won’t be timely. In fact, it may take several weeks for you to get the results. Meanwhile, your schedule will have filled in and it will take some juggling to fit the patient in. All these hassles can be avoided by doing it in-house.
- Your patients will be grateful. Although the whole process of sending someone to get an EMG test done is inconvenient for you, it can be a real nightmare for your patients. After they finally locate the testing facility, they have to work with somebody who may not be as courteous and helpful as you and your staff. Meanwhile, they have to wait around in pain for a long time before they get to see you again.
- You can diagnose a wide number of common ailments.If you can analyze your own EMG and Nerve Conduction data, you can diagnose a wide number of common ailments.
Here is a short list:
- · Carpal Tunnel
- · Lower back pain
- · Neck pain
- · Ulnar neuropathy
- · Diabetic neuropathy
- · Small fiber neuropathies
It's Good for Business
Think about it. Your business will flourish because you are increasing the value of your services by enhancing patient satisfaction. You'll get better results with your patients. Naturally, happy patients will gladly recommend you to family, friends, and work colleagues. There is no better publicity than a hearty recommendation from a grateful patient. You'll have plenty of patients with better posture and better health. In fact, if you get too busy, you can just train your staff to do the testing for you.
