It used to be that the only medical kiosks available to consumers were the automated, self-serve blood pressure machines found in department stores and corner pharmacies. Don’t misunderstand, those kiosks represented fantastic technology for their time. But today’s kiosks are more advanced. Not only that, but they are also popping up everywhere.

Back in late 2019, the medical clinic at Georgia’s Robins Air Force Base installed a prescription kiosk to allow personnel to get their prescriptions refilled without having to go into the pharmacy. Each person wishing to use the kiosk would have to create a unique username and password. Refills were phoned in or ordered online and then picked up at the automated kiosk.

Another example of the modern medical kiosk is found in Egypt. There, the Ministry of Health has begun working with a number of partners to install coronavirus vaccine kiosks in metro train stations. Anyone wishing to be vaccinated simply walks up to a kiosk and lets their intentions be known. A medical professional administers the vaccine on the spot.

It is All About Convenience

Although the two kiosk examples mentioned in this post are not designed to be diagnostic in nature, they still have one thing in common with diagnostic telehealth solutions: convenience. At the end of the day, that’s the main selling point. Medical kiosks make accessing medical care and services more convenient.

Being able to retrieve a prescription refill from an automated kiosk is more convenient than going into the pharmacy and standing in line. Getting a vaccine at a walk-up kiosk in a metro station is more convenient than making an appointment with a medical provider and sitting in a waiting room.

Medical Kiosks Save Time

Hand-in-hand with convenience is saving time. In a modern world that seems busier than ever, saving just a few minutes can make an enormous difference in a person’s day. With medical kiosks, wait times are virtually nonexistent. Patients can walk up and use kiosks on their own schedules.

The kiosks save time for clinicians as well. One of our kiosks, with fully integrated diagnostic equipment, allows clinicians to conduct remote visits with their patients in real time. Clinicians can see remote patients more efficiently than they do in the office, freeing up time to see even more patients in a given day.

Healthcare Services on Demand

There is an undercurrent supporting the convenience and time-saving capabilities of medical kiosks. That undercurrent is the on-demand economy. Whether we like it or not, the on-demand economy has taken hold. It is now driving the majority of business decisions made around the world.

Medical kiosks and other telehealth solutions fit right into the on-demand model. The same patients who are now turning to mobile apps for primary care are also more than willing to utilize walk-up medical kiosks with diagnostic capabilities. Such kiosks represent on-demand healthcare more than capable of supporting the level of care patients would normally get in the office.

It’s What the Doctor Ordered

To make use of an idiom common to the Anglophone world, medical kiosks are just what the doctor ordered. They represent the next step in the evolution of modern healthcare in the technology age. To ignore the technology under the assumption that it is a passing fad is to deny human nature.

Medical kiosks and telehealth solutions succeed because they are convenient. People appreciate them because they save time. And in a world now so used to the on-demand model, both convenience and time savings are important to consumers. That’s why medical kiosks are popping up everywhere.