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Telehealth is a term that refers to using technology to provide medical care at a distance. It includes directly connecting with patients for audiovisual communication, remote patient monitoring of physiologic and other parameters in their homes or between healthcare facilities.

Telehealth and COVID-19

Telehealth has benefitted society and pediatricians during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, healthcare providers are now advocating to create policies that address children’s unique needs after this extreme event has subsided.

Many telemedicine barriers were lifted temporarily due to the crisis. Still, there must be a long-term solution for payment restrictions so that health care can continue seamlessly in future models of pediatrics without interruption or decline in quality.

AAP Policy on Telehealth

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement on how telehealth can be used to increase patient access. It also advocates for equitable telehealth access and adequate payment coverage. One identified goal is that all children should access quality health care regardless of geographic location or socioeconomic status.

Another focus is making sure young patients are not excluded from benefits because they happen to live far away from their provider’s office. This would ensure equity with rural populations who benefit more than anyone else through telemedical support networks such as broadband internet connections on school buses.

Telehealth technologies may provide high-quality care to patients in rural areas. However, these technology improvements mustn’t widen health disparities resulting from the digital divide.

Physicians must ensure health care delivery meets quality standards and maintain pediatricians’ status as key stakeholders in the process. According to policy, there will be opportunities to determine evidence-based best practices for children during this new era of healthcare.

Further, it is vital to provide a coordinated and personalized approach for pediatric care. Kids deserve access to continuous, integrated health care that includes both in-person and virtual options as appropriate. The medical home model will likely evolve with technology, but the core component of avoiding fragmented and episodic treatment remains intact.

Takeaway

According to a new policy statement, pediatric health care providers should be compensated for the time and effort they put into virtual visits. While there are costs associated with implementing telehealth technologies, digital healthcare can benefit clinicians and patients by providing more flexibility during doctor’s appointments; it might also help reduce phone expenses from traveling long distances to visit doctors in person.

Telemedicine offers a critical lifeline for those at risk of getting COVID infections and invalidates transportation as a restriction to medical treatment in rural or remote areas. However, it also presents problems related to patients’ access, quality, and equality while utilizing telemedicine, particularly for elderly patients.
In some cases, doctors will be able to come to the home of a relative or caretaker, but if they can’t, then telephone-based telemedicine may be the option.

In reviewing over 20,000 elderly patients, there was no significant difference in usage by age or gender, although the use differed by race. When it came to patients’ ethnicity, black patients would like to use telemedicine to obtain primary care, while Hispanic patients would not. A study found patients who had a telemedicine consultation had a reduced chance of hospitalization for illnesses.

However, the incidence of hospitalization among black patients who used telemedicine was more than for white patients. In the 85 and older age group, patients who used telemedicine were likewise at greater risk of hospitalization when compared to individuals ages 65 to 74.

The telehealth service must provide access to and training for telemedicine platforms for it to be successful. That may be a barrier for elderly individuals and those with limited internet access.
A third of all visits to physicians’ offices are for older individuals, who typically have a range of additional conditions and impairments.

The research estimated that 13 million people age 60 and over struggle to obtain telemedicine services. With about 6.3 million people 65 and older who have poor or no previous experience with technology and with age-related visual impairment, telephone calls may enhance access to technology for them. However, phone visits are unsatisfactory for accessing treatment that requires visual evaluation.

The community must find a way to overcome the digital gap. Beginning in early 2020, Medicare Services was paying for video and in-person visits at the same rates. That should make all treatments affordable and accessible. Health care providers and communications companies should provide insurance plans that cover the use of telecommunication equipment, particularly as universal telemedicine becomes more prevalent.

The telehealth industry is many years old and has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade. Telehealth became even more vital after the COVID-19 pandemic forced brick-and-mortar clinics and health centers to close in the wake of lockdowns and a fast-spreading virus. Since the first waves of attack, doctors and healthcare facilities needed ways to invest in telehealth.

Key Stats about Telehealth

The American Medical Association reported a 53% increase in telemedicine insurance claims between 2016 and 2017. A recent study by McKinsey & Company also published that up to $250 billion of the money spent in healthcare in the USA can be virtualized. What’s more, hospitals are increasingly using video and remote technologies to conduct doctor-patient visits, and the future of telehealth seems guaranteed.

What It Means For Entrepreneurs

If all the indications and projections are accurate, entrepreneurs have an excellent chance of taking part in the medical industry in various ways. One immediate way entrepreneurs can overhaul the telehealth industry is through digital solutions. Telemedicine is driven by the digital transformation of the traditional hospital model. Entrepreneurs can bring efficiency, reliability, organization, convenience, and security to the medicine industry by providing software and hardware.

The impacts of technology are already being felt as entrepreneurs identify new healthcare faucets. The market already has heart rate monitoring watches, apps, and healthcare products, such as research kits, health kits, and care kits. However, there’s still massive potential for introducing new products and applications. Telehealth relies on efficient communication, flexibility, and a wide range of digital products. With increasing customer acceptance, the market is poised for tremendous growth and demand for solutions.

Navigating the Post-Pandemic Industry

Entrepreneurs have opportunities coming from all directions. Many healthcare practices involve face-to-face appointments, and virtualization will require different solutions. Many hospitals have already adopted telehealth, and practitioners are taking compensation for virtual consultations, so the industry is due for an overhaul. For entrepreneurs, the challenge is to identify what’s on-demand, analyze emerging opportunities and forecast the future of telehealth.

Some would say it’s long overdue, but finally, it has come to pass. On June 24, 2021, Phil Murphy, the Governor of New Jersey, signed into law legislation that allows healthcare workers to authorize the use of marijuana for medical use via telehealth/telemedicine.

A press release indicated that Sen. O’Scanlon Declan and state assemblywomen Joann Downey and Pamela Lampitt sponsored the bill.

This new law allows licensed healthcare providers to authorize medical marijuana on qualified patients through telehealth or telemedicine. However, it is a requirement that telemedicine/telehealth must abide by the standard care required by in-person treatment and assessment.

After a patient is authorized to use medical marijuana, the healthcare provider can decide whether to continue the authorization via telehealth/telemedicine or invite the patient for a face-to-face (in-person) consultation.
According to medical experts, most marijuana patients have mobility problems that make it impossible for them to visit doctors’ offices as frequently as is desired. For this reason, they are left with no option but to rely on telemedicine/telehealth.

The medical experts emphasize that the anxiety reduction, nausea prevention, muscle relaxation, and pain-relief properties of medical marijuana can’t be ignored because they are necessary for patients suffering from acute or severe medical conditions.

Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, insurers and the federal government have supported virtual visits and have endorsed them for many therapies, including medical marijuana. That explains why over 24 states have temporarily permitted the prescription of medical marijuana via telemedicine. This has boosted the number of patients seeking medical assistance but cannot attend physical sessions. Many health workers and patients are now calling upon the authorities to make this model permanent.

According to two medical experts, Downey and Lampitt, this new law is so much welcome because it will leverage technology to make it easy for people to access medical treatment at reduced costs.

Digital authorization is the best way to enable doctors to provide cannabis patients with medication because most of these patients are certified homebound or developmentally disabled.

Some states considering expanding or enacting medical marijuana access include Alabama, Nebraska, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Georgia, Utah, and Virginia.

Over the years, telemedicine is expanding in the USA and has a positive impact on HIV care. It results in reduced transmission rates and increased patient/provider satisfaction.

In retrospective research, the Open Forum Infectious Diseases found telemedicine visits to be equally beneficial as in-person visits for suppressing and managing viral load in individuals with HIV.

Researchers looked at the records of both groups of patients between May 2017 and April 2018. They found that a telemedicine group fared better than an in-person care group.

Telemedicine consultations can have many benefits. You don’t need to travel in person for these visits, which means you can save time and effort on your commute. There’s also the added benefit of having something like streaming video to keep you updated throughout consultations.

There are many other factors to consider when deciding on a location’s suitability for HIV patients. The study’s findings were that HIV patients who are rural-based have worse prognoses than those who reside in an urban area.
A study published in the American Journal of Family Medicine found that telemedicine for HIV patients in rural Georgia yielded comparable results as in-person care.

To reach their goals for the study, the researchers tested a treatment called anti-viral treatment on everyone in the study group. The objective was to make sure that there was no negative correlation between the efficacy of this treatment and the age, race, and gender characteristics of participants.

82% of patients in the telemedicine group and 50% in the in-person group had a CD4 count greater than or equal to 643 cells/mm3. The results were all statistically significant.

The study compared treatment outcomes for patients in two groups-those who received traditional face-to-face therapy and those who used a video conferencing platform. Although the group that used computer-based methods showed reduced improvement at first, this difference disappeared over time.

The research offers hope that telemedicine could seem like the solution for those rural areas with the highest level of access to care issues.

Telemedicine is a helpful resource for the long-term management of chronic diseases such as HIV in locations without local physicians.