Digital Healthcare Services For Remote Workers
Among some of the drastic changes we went through over the past few years, remote work has become one of the few to stay. Various research and studies across industries have found remote work to be a preference among employees. Work-from-home patterns remain a staple in different sectors around the world, and job postings offering remote work rose fivefold between 2019 and early 2023. Recently, the UK outpaced countries such as the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand for remote work jobs.
The steady growth of work-from-home worldwide has made way for digital nomads everywhere to work remotely while constantly moving. At the same time, however, remote workers also need to keep safety tips in mind. Simple work-life balance adjustments such as showering, dressing up, and avoiding eating lunch at your desk can go a long way in optimizing your work environment for better productivity and well-being.
Thankfully, with most of our daily activities occurring online or digitally, health and wellness solutions have become more accessible, allowing for better health and work-life balance. In this post, we’ll look at a few digital health and wellness services available online for remote workers:
Telemedicine
One of the key benefits of our increasingly online and digital lifestyles is the increased accessibility to healthcare through telehealth and online consultations. An online consultation lets you contact a GP or other health professional over the Internet, saving you from waiting for physical appointments. This can be done via smartphone, tablet, or computer. If your GP surgery offers telehealth services in the UK, you can access them through the NHS app or website.
Using telehealth, you can talk to a healthcare provider live and in real-time, send and receive messages, or use remote monitoring for cases where they may need to stay informed on your vital signs and symptoms. While in-person visits may still be necessary in some instances, telehealth lets you access healthcare without leaving your home, cutting down on travel time and costs so that you can still work uninterrupted.
Free home trials
Sometimes, there are products you need to purchase to maintain your health. These vary from prescription medications to wheelchairs, supplements, and even eyewear — essential for people working with screens all day. Thankfully, healthcare products like eyewear often come with a free trial before you purchase. With a free home trial, you can try on glasses at home for up to seven days before finalizing your purchase. Some retailers may also offer multiple frames for your free home trial, so you can pick and choose which one suits you best.
Other health products that offer free trials are meal kit subscriptions, which help people eliminate the hassle of shopping for groceries, plan meals, and prepare ingredients. This is especially important for remote workers who may have difficulty scheduling downtime to plan healthy meals. Many meal kit vendors also specialize in healthy meals, so remote workers can stay healthy while working from home.
Home delivered Vitamins
A growing number of vitamin and supplement companies are now offering home delivery subscription services. This provides a lot of benefits over traditional in-store purchases as we’ll see below.
The main appeal is convenience. Having vitamins individually packed and shipped to your door on a regular basis helps busy consumers maintain their supplement routines. There’s no more worrying about running out or making frequent trips to the pharmacy or grocery store. Moreover, they will always be available, so you don’t have to look around for them in different places.
Another upside is customization. Many vitamin delivery services allow customers to fully personalize their vitamin packs. You can handpick the exact supplements and dosages that match your health goals, lifestyle, age, gender, and activity level. Adjustments can be made easily if there is a need for change. Some companies will even help you understand what vitamins you miss and create a bespoke offering for you.
Cuure is one of the companies offering a personalised vitamin programme.
Reputable home delivery brands also emphasize quality, using pharmaceutical-grade ingredients you can trust. This helps ensure potency, purity, and absorption. The subscription plans offer savings over one-time purchases, and some companies also provide extras like health advice from experts, video calls with doctors, and much more.
Of course, potential downsides exist too, like upfront costs, forgetful skipping of shipments, and questions about nutrient bioavailability. However, for many, the convenience and customization of home vitamin delivery make sticking to a regimen effortless. Some of this services deliver worldwise so you could get them wherever you are in the world, at any time.
As always, consult a doctor, especially if managing specific conditions.
Here are some companies that are in the business and can provide you with this service:
Home Blood tests
At-home blood test kits are a new thing on the market and allow people to collect a blood sample in the comfort of their own home and mail it to a lab for analysis. These kits have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their convenience and ability to provide insights into health markers without requiring a clinic visit.
One of the main advantages of at-home blood test kits is convenience; the sample can be collected at home rather than traveling to a lab or clinic; hence, it provides flexibility. No appointments, no waiting times, etc.
Also, they can be cheaper than standard lab tests, depending on insurance coverage, and allow people to monitor their health without expensive doctor visits.
There tests can check biomarkers like cholesterol, blood cell counts, vitamins, hormones, and more which empowers proactive health management and can keep you much more healthy in the long run.
You can stay private in these states. Well, up to one point. Results are delivered directly to you, and some people prefer privacy over discussing results with a doctor first, so it’s up to you if you want to involve the doctor or not after seeing them.
However, at-home tests do have limitations in terms of what biomarkers can be tested. It’s important to research the test’s accuracy and discuss the results with a doctor. But overall, the simplicity and insights make at-home blood test kits an attractive option for many health-conscious consumers.
Health and wellness webinars and communities
Finally, depending on your line of work, some employers provide free health and wellness webinars you can attend online and digitally. These webinars serve as valuable education to learn essential health concepts such as stress management, nutrition, fitness, mental health, and more. Webinars are also interactive, usually featuring live Q&A sessions, polls, chats, and games, ensuring you are engaged and still feel connected.
Health and wellness webinars are also a convenient alternative to in-person wellness sessions. Some of these can be scheduled at convenient times and accessed from anywhere as long as you’re connected to the Internet, while predetermined, scheduled sessions can be an excellent means to stay in touch with other people in your network or digital workplace.
Many healthcare services and solutions are readily available to us online. And while too much digital screen time can be bad for us — making us sedentary or causing digital overwhelm — the Internet can also be helpful and keep us healthy, as long as we know where to look.