Telemedicine,
once an intriguing proposition struggling to reach its potential, became an
absolute necessity in 2020. In the early days of COVID-19, as medical centers
labored to deal with an influx of patients while also trying to mitigate
coronavirus spread, telemedicine was urgently needed as an option for providing
healthcare to others at a safe distance. In the U.S., the government and
providers quickly started to take measures to facilitate its use during the
crisis of the pandemic.
In some ways it’s
hard to understand why telemedicine wasn’t already in widespread use,
though, considering that people are increasingly preferring to do everything
from banking to grocery shopping online. Why not healthcare as well?
A new webinar, Emerging Trends in Telemedicine, offers some insight. Moderated by Elsevier’s Ann Gabriel, the webinar includes an international panel featuring Dr. Amol Navathe (Philadelphia VA Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Heather Ross (Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto), and Dr. Robin Ohannessian (Public Health specialist, Director of Télémédecine 360).
In this fascinating
discussion, the panelists talk about the many challenges of telemedicine, which
include hurdles like regulatory standards, privacy and security concerns, the
need for political buy-in, insurance coverage and pricing for telemedicine
visits, and technology requirements. These issues and more have contributed to
the relatively sluggish rate of adoption of telemedicine prior to the pandemic.
The good news is
that is changing – and while those hurdles are still high, they are hardly
insurmountable. The panelists reveal some of the ways that they have seen
governments, doctors, patients and the healthcare system as a whole start to
embrace telemedicine and they offer some thoughts as to how it can be most
effectively used.
The webinar also
includes the presentation of some fascinating data and polling results that
offer further insight into the latest trends around telemedicine and its
adoption.
To learn more, watch the webinar here.
