Telehealth: The Future of Healthcare

The Current Status of Telehealth

Telehealth acceptability has grown, with a recent study indicating that telemedicine utilization peaked at 38 times the pre-pandemic baseline of 0.1% for all medical visits. This spike in popularity is unsurprising considering the numerous benefits that telehealth provides, including improved access to care, lower costs, and more patient satisfaction.

Furthermore, telehealth includes a wide range of activities such as virtual consultation, remote monitoring, digital therapies, and asynchronous communication. These enable care to be delivered to patients regardless of their location, breaking down obstacles such as travel time, transportation, and time limits with the patient.

Telehealth's Future Looks Promising:

The healthcare industry has responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging telehealth services to give high-quality care without the need for physical presence. Telehealth uses communication technology to provide healthcare services to patients via video chat, webcams, phones, or video conference software. Prior to the pandemic, telemedicine programs were limited and intended to help only rural and underserved patients. However, by 2020-2021, telehealth will have extended to all parts of the industry.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted a 154% increase in telehealth utilization in late March 2020 over 2019, with the industry expected to exceed $397 billion USD by 2027. The pandemic has had a substantial influence on the sector, which is estimated to be valued $42 billion USD in 2019.

While utilization has declined since the pandemic's peak, telehealth is now an essential component of the future of healthcare delivery. As enterprises around the world continue to employ this technology, 6 critical trends for the future of telehealth are developing.

Improved Patient Utilization: What began as a plan to limit community transmission has resulted in an ongoing discussion among healthcare professionals concerning the continuation of telehealth consultations for many clients in the future. It is increasingly regarded as a cost-effective first line of treatment for non-urgent and follow-up visits.

And, even before the epidemic, data supported the rising use of telemedicine. In a McKinsey poll, 76% of patients expressed an interest in using telemedicine in the future.

Increased Chronic Care Management: Approximately one-third of all adults worldwide suffer from a chronic ailment, which includes kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, lung disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and stroke complications. In most situations, lifestyle choices and preventative care measures can help these people avoid and treat these disorders. However, a significant number of these patients do not complete their therapy, do not take or refill their repeat prescriptions, and do not attend their monthly follow-up appointments to assist manage their symptoms. The industry loses billions of dollars each year as a result of poor adherence to care plans. Telehealth has the ability to reduce the cost of a care plan while also increasing patient involvement and adherence to it.

Increased Attention on Mental Health: Mental health diseases affect somewhat more than 15% of the world's population. The epidemic only seemed to exacerbate the issue, generating a rise in sadness and anxiety as a result of lockdowns, isolation, and increased dread of the unknown. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide. Those who were already undergoing treatment had their support groups closed, their clinic appointments discontinued, and their options for symptom relief became extremely limited. Many therapists, counselors, and doctors rapidly resorted to video conferencing to continue providing care to their patients. As a result, the development of teletherapy and telepsychiatry began, and these treatments are likely to become generally accepted in the future.

Improved User Experience: When it comes to the expansion of telemedicine, patient demand has been the most powerful motivator. The desire for convenient access to care services will continue, and providers will face increased expectations. As businesses plan for the future of telehealth, they should keep the patient experience and expectations in mind. Furthermore, as demand grows, more companies are branching out and entering the market, so organizations will need to do something to stay ahead of the competition.

Integrated Data Sharing: It is not surprising that data sharing services are quicker and more comfortable to use, and this is where telehealth is heading. Many telehealth apps are beginning to integrate and communicate with fitness apps, for example, to collect step count and heart rate data straight from an individual's devices. This will provide healthcare providers with a more complete image of a person's lifestyle, which, when combined with electronic healthcare data, will help to create a clearer picture of their current health.

Wearable Tech And Remote Patient Monitoring: As previously said, telehealth is becoming increasingly important for those with chronic diseases, and the concept of integrated data sharing leads to the next trend for the future: wearable technology. Wearable technology has existed for decades, dating back to 1970 when HP introduced a calculator wristwatch. Fast forward to 2009, when the first Fitbit fitness tracker was created. In 2015, the Apple Watch was released, accelerating the development and growth of smartwatch and fitness tracker product sales. This has made remote patient monitoring more accessible and efficient in the healthcare industry. These devices let clinicians to collect real-time data on a variety of health metrics from their patients, such as activity levels, heart rates, blood pressure, sleep cycles, and glucose levels.

Conclusion:

These are the major themes that have emerged with the broad acceptance of telehealth services in the last 18 months. Telehealth offers so many benefits to the healthcare profession that, while the pandemic is nearing its end, the use of this groundbreaking technology will continue for a long time.

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