Understanding the Distinction between Virtual Care and Telemedicine

I have been incorrectly using the term virtual care as being synonymous with physician/patient encounters via telemedicine. I was set straight by the following article:Telemedicine vs. Virtual Care: Defining the Difference. It's important to carefully distinguish between these two types of digital care as the field rapidly expands. Here's the difference as defined in this article:  Simply put, the term virtual care is a way of talking about all the ways patients and doctors can use digital tools to communicate....While telemedicine refers to long-distance [direct and visual] patient care, virtual care is a much broader term that refers to a variety of digital healthcare services.Also pulled from this article, here are some of the various types of virtual care that differ than telemedicine visits:...[These] may include checking in [remotely] after an in-person visit, monitoring vitals after surgery, or responding to any questions [from the patient] about their diagnosis, condition or treatment plan [via email or IM].Put another way, telemedicine makes use of digital technologies to enable a physician to communicate visually and in real-time with a patient. Virtual care is broader and also makes use of digital technologies such as email or a cell phone but the physician in these latter cases is not communicating directly and visually with the patient.
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Telemedicine Source Type: blogs