Synchronous vs. asynchronous telemedicine

Synchronous telemedicine takes place in real-time, such as during a video or telephone consultation.

Asynchronous telemedicine is data collected or recorded by one party, and disclosed to another party at a different time. This could include a doctor’s pre-recorded video detailing standard dietary advice for a diabetic patient, or a quality improvement survey being submitted online by a patient to their surgery. Telemonitoring — remote monitoring of data like vital signs, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure readings — is generally regarded as an asynchronous component of telemedicine.

However, there’s always the possibility that a doctor could be accessing a patient’s record at the same moment they were entering their data, unintentionally achieving synchronous telemedicine.