The COVID-19 pandemic has offered the healthcare sector an opportunity to incline towards Telemedicine. Telemedicine has grown exponentially, and the shift toward remote care to align with social distancing guidelines fueled this growth. 

COVID-19 is transforming the use of telemedicine growth powerfully. Social distancing and quarantine have been the only widely available interventions with no vaccine or effective therapies. This created a way for telemedicine instead of in-person care. 

Telemedicine has proven to be an invaluable tool in referring a vast number of patients to ambulances and changing the working practices of thousands of providers in many disciplines. The impact of telemedicine on the COVID-19 response is consistent with the likely lasting impact of COVID-19 on telemedicine and, through it, on health care in general, with many Americans and their providers receiving an accident. A course in the use of telemedicine tools, experiencing their potential and creating comfort and expectations for their wide availability.

Numerous Telemedicine Software and apps were developed during this crisis worldwide, and people preferred using the solutions instead of an in-person visit. In this article, we will find out what Telemedicine is and how it has grown in this pandemic.

What is Telemedicine?

The term telemedicine refers explicitly to the treatment of various conditions without the patient’s vision. Healthcare providers can use remote health platforms, such as live video, audio, or instant messaging, to address patients’ health problems and remotely diagnose their condition. This may include providing medical care, exercising at home, or recommending a local service provider or agency. 

The provider had concerns about telemedicine, which included a deterioration in the quality of care compared to personal visits, a reduction in the privacy and security of patients’ health information, and a lack of possible personal contact between providers and patients during telemedicine visits. In addition, there is evidence that direct-to-consumer healthcare can increase medical misconduct. Healthcare providers may also resist telehealth growth innovation because they perceive technology to compete with their services.

Statistics of Telemedicine During COVID-19:

In 2019, the value of the telemedicine market was over $ 41.4 billion. The World Health Organization also highlighted telemedicine as an essential service in responding to the emergency of COVID-19. In the healthcare landscape, the COVID-19 era has ideal conditions to accelerate this growth. In the annual survey, about 85% of consumers were interested in receiving virtual healthcare, but only 17% had access to it.

The 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) rapidly changed the healthcare system, with telemedicine or virtual health being one of the main drivers of change.

In recent years, the growth of telemedicine has been gradual, with only 8% of Americans using it in 2019. The main obstacles to broader deployment were limited benefits, the lack of convenience for patients and providers of telemedicine technologies, and, in principle, the replacement of personal care, which is mainly outside rural medicine. 

Many healthcare systems have invested in telemedicine growth capacity building despite these obstacles, anticipating an increasingly broad future. Telemedicine is a $ 17.8 billion industry and is expected to grow 18.4% per year between 2015 and telemedicine statistics 2020. Although telemedicine still has some limitations, many healthcare providers are innovating to address these issues and improve patients’ access to quality care.

Mass migration to telemedicine has occurred in March and April 2020, while personal visits have fallen by more than 80%. Telemedicine visits for emergency medical care were divided into age groups, with the highest number of uses over 20-44 years. The increase in telemedicine emergency care was made possible by the rapid growth of the emergency medical workforce from <40 emergency medicine providers to 289 “boost” providers in several disciplines.

In addition to clinical benefits and more efficient use of providers in very atypical conditions, the changes initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to have irreversibly changed the position of telemedicine in the US healthcare system. When earlier literature speculated about the potential importance of telemedicine over personal care, it seemed futuristic. Still, now it is a reality that is practised in many health care systems around the world. Using telemedicine platforms is forcing providers and patients into a new norm that involves video and audio communication.

The telemedicine platform for doctors means rapidly developing new skills in building virtual relationships, empathy, “facilitated” physical examinations, diagnosis, and counselling as curricula develop to train these new skills and new ways of quality assurance. Trainees from our institutions now join our providers on multi-part video visits to observe and learn about these rapidly evolving skills and new norms. In addition, providers quickly began asking for the possibility to upload patient remote monitoring data to the EHR. This option had existed for many years, but only a few service providers used it for specialized use cases in the past. The impact of extensive video visits on team-based care is also being rethought, creating new roles for outpatient nurses, paramedics, and reception staff.

Benefits of Telemedicine:

Although the telemedicine industry is growing with several benefits, some challenges still need to be considered. Adding new technologies and processes to your organization is a big step and should not be taken lightly. This post describes the pros and cons of telemedicine that you should consider before deciding to upgrade your patient services.

Adopting the latest telemedicine initiatives can help your practice achieve many benefits. Telemedicine can reduce healthcare costs, increase efficiency and revenue, provide patients with better access to healthcare, and ultimately become a happier and healthier patient who stays in your organization.

More Convenient & Accessible Patient Care:

In today’s healthcare world, convenience is the primary factor and is among the benefits of telemedicine. Adding virtual care to your practice provides patients with easy and when needed care. Telemedicine minimizes the travel and time wasted for taking consultations for personal visits. Patients who live in remote locations are at home or cannot take time off work can access care virtually with the help of Telemedicine. 

Cost-effectiveness And Health Savings Of Telemedicine:

Remote analysis and monitoring services and electronic data storage significantly reduce healthcare costs, saving you, your patients, and insurance companies money. Telemedicine also helps in reducing unnecessary non-urgent ER visits and saves time and transport costs for regular inspections.

In addition to overall cost savings, distance health can help increase revenue by making on-call time billable, attracting new patients, reducing absenteeism, and even reducing overhead costs for physicians who choose to transition to flexible homework part-time.

Extended Access To Specialist And Referring Physician:

With telemedicine, patients in rural or remote areas have faster and more convenient access to specialists. In the United States, only 43 specialists are available for every 100,000 rural patients. These patients tolerate longer commutes and have difficulty with life-saving consultations for specific illnesses or chronic care plans.

Increased Patient Involvement:

With the help of telemedicine, the providers can maintain their appointments, patients’ documents, and other data in one place that can be accessed anywhere and at any time. So, Involving patients through telemedicine is beneficial. Greater inclusion initiatives can also limit overweight and tobacco use, helping you to encourage your patients to lead healthy lifestyles.

Better Quality Of Patient Care:

Telemedicine offers patient-centered appro aches, such as the timeliness of care. This is crucial for quality patient care who prefer immediate care. Patients can deal with health issues quickly by providing real-time urgent consultations and learning about treatment options in minutes.

Conclusion:-

COVID-19 has highlighted opportunities for technological development in medicine and medical education. Training future providers to use these technologies and provide these treatments is essential to better understand which aspects of medicine work best in telemedicine. Healthcare providers should help their patients to distinguish between these terms to make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of all the digital healthcare tools they use.

Now that you know some of the benefits of telemedicine, you are ready to think about how your practice will approach this booming healthcare trend. Now, you can leverage Telemedicine App Development Services with just a few clicks. You will get the benefits and features as per your requirement.