In a recent study, Royal Phillips, a global leader in health technology, found out that more people experienced sleep challenges during the outbreak of COVID-19. A whopping 58% of the study respondents expressed a willingness to seek help for their sleep concerns from a specialist through telehealth services even though they hadn’t tried it yet.
The survey indicated that there was broader interest in seeking virtual care spurred by the virus outbreak. At least a third of the consumers had accessed telehealth appointments and with over half admitting it was their first.
Lee Chiong Teofilo spoke of the availability of tools needed to offer telehealth efficiently and the rising interest from consumers to access it. However, a significant percentage of consumers expressed that they expected it to be challenging to find a sleep specialist through a telephone-based or online program.
55% of participants of the study were content with their sleeping patterns. Only 40% of the United States respondents were a bit satisfied with their sleep patterns. At the same time, those from India reported the highest number of somewhat happy respondents with their sleep patterns. Japan had the lowest number of respondents who were content with their sleep.
In the market, sleep concerns have led to the development of tools geared towards improving sleep health. Some of these tools include behavioral therapy software and wearable trackers.
In a nutshell, when appropriately used, sleep telehealth can empower patients to make better decisions, provide equitable health care, improve the quality of care and improve health outcomes.