Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, it has become more difficult for people to go to hospitals for normal medical checkups and specific consultations. The best solution doctors have found is telehealth, which, according to Mayo Clinic, is “the use of digital information and communications technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access health care services remotely and manage your health care.” This has ensured that patients can get the care that they need while maintaining minimal contact with other people.
The guidelines for using telehealth are relatively similar all over the United States. JAMIA, a scholarly journal in health and biomedicine, stated that the methods of using telehealth were e-consultations, remote patient monitoring, messaging with patients using a hospital portal, telephone visits, and video visits. The article portrayed video visits as the most useful and that it could even be an adequate replacement for physical exams or general consultations. There are some shortcomings of telehealth, such as internet connection issues, lack of access to devices, and the increased difficulty of correctly diagnosing any issues the patient has, which could lead to severe issues such as privacy breaches and misdiagnoses of diseases.
Before COVID-19, there was some dissension about the usage of telehealth. In 2017, Urologist Ranjith Ramasay “feared he was going to lose patients to telemedicine providers without appropriate certifications or specialty training.” He further mentions that hospital checkup cannot fully go online, and that a combined approach would be the most optimal choice. Now, the pandemic has pushed many more people to make appointments for video visits. According to The Common Wealth Fund, “the number of visits to ambulatory practices declined nearly 60 percent by early April. Since that time a rebound has occurred, but the number of visits is still roughly one-third lower than what was seen before the pandemic.” An article from Health Affairs explains how the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has expanded their regulation and usage of telehealth since the beginning of the pandemic. They highlight how telehealth is optimal for palliative care by “recruit[ing] and onboard[ing] nearly a hundred out of state volunteer palliative care providers to augment [their] capacity….these providers were connected via telephone and video…..to patients across ED, inpatient, and ICU care settings….They provided more than two hundred tele consults from April 15 to May 15, 2020.”
The pandemic has brought up the question of whether or not telehealth could be permanently implemented after the pandemic calms down. An article by Health Intelligence from July pinpoints a conference between the Center for Telehealth and Connected Care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Boise State University, and St. John’s Health: “An overwhelming majority (96 percent) of attendees believe that telehealth’s role will continue to grow in the industry….Sixty-eight percent said they planned to further invest in telehealth following the public health emergency. Another 44 percent said they plan to invest in IT infrastructure and capabilities, which support telehealth solutions.”
References
Lau, Jen, et al. “Staying Connected In The COVID-19 Pandemic: Telehealth At The Largest Safety-Net System In The United States.” Health Affairs, 11 June 2020, www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00903.
“Managing Your Health in the Age of Wi-Fi.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 15 May 2020, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/telehealth/art-20044878.
Mehrotra, Ateev. “What Impact Has COVID-19 Had on Outpatient Visits?” Commonwealth Fund, 19 May 2020, www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2020/apr/impact-covid-19-outpatient-visits.
Pattillo, Ali. “Covid-19 Is Turning Skeptical Doctors into Telehealth Believers.” Inverse, Inverse, 6 Aug. 2020, www.inverse.com/mind-body/mens-telehealth-covid-19.
Wosik, Jedrek, et al. “Telehealth Transformation: COVID-19 and the Rise of Virtual Care.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 17 May 2020, academic.oup.com/jamia/article/27/6/957/5822868.
mHealthIntelligence. “Telehealth Will Continue to Grow After Coronavirus Pandemic.” MHealthIntelligence, 25 June 2020, mhealthintelligence.com/news/telehealth-will-continue-to-grow-after-coronavirus-pandemic#:~:text=The coronavirus pandemic sparked the,Summit | Telehealth20: Virtual Series.
Written by Keya Mann
Edited by Lucy Ge
Graphics by Karis Kelly
Group advised by Sadia Akbar
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