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By Sanjana Ravi
As technology continues to innovate medical engineering and education, it gives rise to a new day to day form of patient care: telehealth.
Virtual healthcare services provide patients with the experience of a doctor’s office in the comforts of their own home.
With medicine constantly evolving with its population, telehealth develops stronger and more detailed roots in medical practices. From 2019 to the peak of the pandemic, health care centers with the ability to provide telemedicine rose from 45% to 95%. As social distancing and quarantining rose, so did the fear of entering a doctor’s office or nearby hospital.
"People were able to receive access to health care. We were able to reach out to our patients who were afraid to come into the office to be seen. It really afforded that opportunity to still take care of our patients and do so in a safe way."
- Dr. Ada Stewart, MD speaks to U.S. News & World Report
The compromise between in-person health care and COVID-19 safety precautions lead to this innovation being tested at its peak potential. In what seemed like a few months, the medical field built it into an ever-growing subfield that is predicted to change the future of patient care.
Ultimately, the reactions from patients is what fuels the success of telehealth. Although there are many types of visits and questions that require an in-person consultation including blood work, imaging, and hands-on testing, most doctors find malleability in the way they practice and treat their patients.
Suddenly, access to healthcare didn’t seem all that daunting to those with transportation limitations, neurodivergent disorders, financial limitations, or to those who just didn’t have the time in the day to wait in the doctor’s office for an hour and a half.
Telehealth allows the use of synchronous or asynchronous patient care as well virtual chatbots for efficient and accurate care. Other areas of the field seem to be encouraging the practice of telehealth as well. Insurance companies cover more and more types of virtual visits and the security of electronic health data is doubling down.
While the pandemic is predicted to eventually become a thing of the past, telehealth is predicted to remain stable in this new world of medicine. Healthcare services look towards hybrid models of patient care, whereas standard visits and straight forward consultations rise up to a new version of normal. Patients and physicians have learned how to rope in technology to provide medicine an opportunity of growth and diversity in its ability to treat and diagnose.
What are your thoughts on telehealth?
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