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Dr. Brightman has performed consultations via telemedi-
cine for the management of menopausal symptoms and
painful periods and family planning, as well as to treat uri-
nary tract and other infections. Some obstetrics visits can
also be done virtually, with women checking their blood
pressure and weight at home. But Dr. Brightman says there
are times when an in-office visit is necessary, such as ab-
normally heavy bleeding and STI screening.

When it comes to dentistry, almost all procedures will re- A normal hard disk drive comes in a couple of form
quire an in-person visit at some stage to let the dentist factors, but both share one thing in common: mov-
complete any physical work that needs to be done. While ing internal components that have been the stand-
minor emergencies like a broken bracket or a popped-out ard for decades. One of the benefits of this type of
wire can often be resolved temporarily at home via virtual drive is its relative affordability.
guidance by an orthodontist, detailed clinical observation
and specific diagnosis must be done in person, says Dr. Affordable and Easy
Kunen. Take the Seagate Backup Plus series, for in-
stance. It’s a USB 3.0 external hard drive with 4
What are the drawbacks? TB storage capacity perfect for those who want an
affordable drive for shuttling image files and videos
While telemedicine offers face-to-face interaction with between systems or for straightforward data back-
health care providers—which is crucial at a time like this, up. What this bus-powered drive may lack in
when needs are critically high due to the COVID-19 pan- speed it makes up for in simplicity and affordability.
demic—it’s important to remember that it does have limi- It’s plug-and-play formatted for both Windows and
tations. Mac right out of the box, and it includes a compli-
mentary two-month subscription to Adobe Creative
“Physicians are able to rely on patients to take their tem- Cloud’s photography plan. Best of all, the 4 TB
perature, however things such as blood pressure and lab drive retails for just $99 at bhphotovideo.com. Vis-
work all rely on nursing staff,” says Dr. Levy. “It’s also it seagate.com for more information.
impossible to recreate the hands-on element of a standard Solid-state drives, better known as SSDs, have
office visit. Without the ability for the doctor to touch or become increasingly popular in recent years, as
feel the patient, it is sometimes more difficult to determine they’re fast and reliable with no internal moving
what the actual issue is.” parts. They’re compact, too, which makes them
great for photographers and videographers who
Dr. Kunen agrees that telemedicine may be somewhat lim- need to travel light. The current ideal among SSD
ited in terms of what can be accomplished, but she believes drives is NVMe, which maximizes speed and sta-
it’s “a wonderful adjunct to modern practice.” And during bility of these flash-based drives.
this unprecedented time, when many people may not be
able to (or want to) go to an in-person visit, a virtual one is Other World Computing’s Envoy Pro EX is a com-
a great alternative in many cases. “Going forward, I think pact NVMe drive that’s perfect for Mac users who
telehealth will remain an important component to all medi- relish traveling light while protecting their data.
cal practices,” she says. This USB-C drive offers data transfer up to 980
mb/s, and its rugged, all-aluminum construction is
built to withstand the rigors of serious travel, as it’s
both waterproof and dustproof. 240 GB to 4 TB
capacities, ranging from $119 to
$1,099. eshop.macsales.com

Big and Secure
Those who want to ensure data security go above
and beyond by mirroring the data from one drive
onto another. This is done most efficiently with a
RAID drive array, which automatically duplicates
the contents of one hard drive to another. RAIDs
have the reputation of being complex, though that
isn’t always the case. They’re available in multiple
setups starting with a pair of drives that simply du-
plicate one another. If one fails, simply pull it out

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