I've been booked for a Telehealth appointment!

I got a phone call today from the receptionist of an Oral surgeon.
They want me to install a third-party android messaging app to discuss some future dental procedures.

Has anyone else had telehealth appointments?
What was your experience with using it like?

My concerns are about privacy and using 3rd party apps.
Should we trust 3rd party apps owned by private businesses for our private medical consultations?
Or should telehealth appointments be conducted on a private government owned video-messaging service?

Should the government develop it's own telehealth video messaging app to ensure the privacy of it's citizens when discussing their own health issues?

What do others think about this?

I had one regarding knee replacement surgery.

I had to go into the local hospital for it, to talk to the surgeon in the big smoke.

I probably have spent time doing something more useless, but if I have, I can't remember what or when.

AC- I don't trust third party apps. But sometimes it's necessary to look at the risks- in this case the risk of too many apps, the risk of privacy, the security risk. I would just wait until you can go and see the doctor in person. Tele-medicine does have the potential to use scarce specialist medical resources more efficiently. I agree with your view that a centralised government based app would have more predictable privacy and integrity constraints. Though it would be constrained by all sorts of crazy intersectionalist government policies such as multicultural diverse work places- which you may or may not agree with

So I had my telehealth appointment today.
- And it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

It was a 20 - 25 minute video call where the surgeon went over everything for me.

I'd have to agree the process was much more efficient from the surgeons point of view, and it saved me having to drive in and pay for parking.

The surgeon explained the procedure:

- I'm just having the 2 remaining wisdom teeth out (top) that probably should've come out a decade ago or more, and it's the first step in trying to get my teeth straightened as well as having a broken one replaced.

The broken one started out as a chipped tooth about 7 years ago, but by the time I went to the dentist it had decayed at the back of the tooth (where I couldn't see) worse than what I'd thought.
The dentist fixed it, but told me it would probably only last 18mths, and true to his word, it lasted almost exactly 18mths.

[Cont.]

So anyway the surgeon went through the procedure;

We looked at my mouth x-rays, the teeth to be removed and the proximity to my sinus, and the reason it will have to be sewn up afterwards.
She told me to stop using ibuprofen and organised a script of Panadeine forte to pick up from my local chemist.
She scheduled an appointment for surgery on Thursday this week.
She discussed my eating requirements prior to general anesthetic and a need for someone to be with me when I leave hospital and to be with me for 24hrs afterwards.
She told me to expect some soreness afterwards for a few weeks due to swelling / bruising, and to expect some fluid discharge from the wound during the healing process.
She also discussed three different fees, the hospital fees, anesthetist fees and her fees.

But all in all, everything organised and discussed in about 20 - 25 mins.

One thing that made things more difficult was printing, signing and sending back the surgical consent form.

That was a nightmare, but one that related to my printer at home.

The reason I mention it, was because I was not permitted to simply go to the hospital and sign the consent form myself there.
It had to be an emailed digital copy, probably because of COVID hospital precautions.

The telehealth appointment wasn't too bad, except for downloading and installing the app, though if I had an iphone they would've used facetime.
The complexity of receiving emails, returning consent forms, replying to anesthetists text messages, and calls to medical receptionists, etc could be made simpler and more efficient for patients.

But maybe it's just me, and because it's a bit of a rush given they managed to get me a spot on short notice.