Even as restaurants and businesses reopen, more and more corners of our healthcare system are realizing the future potential of telehealth. The Harvard Business Review noted that developments in telemedicine continue to increase patient access to health services, while Newsweek reports that telemedicine practices adopted during the pandemic will continue to be implemented by hospitals around the country. And, the effort to protect access to telehealth services is underway, with a new bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate proposing to make telehealth a permanent feature of Medicare.
Read on for our monthly roundup of the most significant developments in telehealth:
Preparing hospitals for the next pandemic
Harvard Business Review
In a healthcare system that prioritizes offering high priced services over the broader health needs of the population, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of adopting telemedicine to maximize care for all patients, write Pinar Karaca-Mandic and Zach Levin. The recent rise in access to remote intensive care and the decentralization of expensive facilities are a direct and ongoing result of advancements in telemedicine.
World’s best smart hospitals 2021
Newsweek
“At the top of the list of technologies that hospitals need is telehealth,” writes David H. Freedman. The pandemic has led healthcare professionals and patients alike to recognize the value of telemedicine, which will continue to become a core differentiator for health systems in the hospitals of the future.
Senators introduce bipartisan bill aimed at safeguarding rural telehealth access
Healthcare IT News
In June, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators introduced The Protecting Rural Telehealth Access Act, a bill designed to make telehealth solutions permanent under Medicare. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, who introduced the bill stated, “Even after the pandemic ends, our health care system should bolster telehealth services as a reliable option to serve patients and help expand health care options and availability for rural America”.
Future looks promising for telemedicine
Ophthalmology Times
New innovations in telemedicine have made the diagnosis of ocular pathologies possible through virtual eye examinations, writes Linda Charters. Telehealth technologies also allow disease detection to now be conducted remotely, with patients wearing a headset and virtual reality goggles that contain EEG sensors and custom optics to measure disease progression.
COVID was a tipping point for telehealth. If doctors and patients have their way, virtual visits are here to stay
USA Today
The rise of telehealth implementations across the country has lent support to the growing consensus that many health services, which once had to be administered in-person, can be conducted safely and effectively through virtual meetings. “We’ve seen that telehealth is an incredible tool”, USA Today quoted David Holmberg, chief executive of Highmark, as saying. “It’s convenient for the patient, and it’s convenient for the doctor. … Now we need to make it sustainable and enduring”.