One of the big topics of discussion surrounding healthcare right now is the transition to an online healthcare practice for the sector. It’s a concept known as “Telehealth” and far from being an expensive fad, there’s plenty to suggest that telehealth is absolutely the wave of the future. The biggest driving factor has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which is logical, but it’s still fair to say that no one expected the uptake of telehealth to be quite so dramatic, nor that it would so clearly stick around after signs of the pandemic easing became clear.
What is Telehealth? How Has Its Use Developed?
Numbers from the US show that the initial spike in use of telehealth started between March and April of 2020. The end of April marked the peak of usage, with telehealth utilisation for outpatient care being 78 times higher than it was in February. After that peak it fell back to around 40 times higher where it has remained consistently.
What was behind the surge in telehealth adoption? Obviously, the arrival of COVID-19 spurred demand, but it was further enabled by the fact people in the pandemic were now much more willing to use telehealth as an alternative, and providers more willing to provide it if it helped to control the spread of the disease and keep pressure off of healthcare providers and intensive care units.
In the US at least, telehealth has mostly been used in the fields of psychiatry, substance use disorder treatment, endocrinology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, neurological medicine, ENT medicine and pulmonary medicine.
Telehealth in Australia – Is it the Future?
On December 13, 2021, the government in Australia announced that it was to provide AU$106 million in the next 4 years to support ongoing and growing telehealth services. The list of approved providers has grown to include GPs, specialists and consultants, allied health providers, mental health professionals, and nurse practitioners.
The first sign that telehealth has a big future is the sheer number of Australians who have already said they would definitely be willing to continue using it even after the pandemic is finally over. A survey conducted by Capterra found that 79 percent of respondents — there were 1,000 participants in the survey — said they would continue using it.
The survey had other key findings:
Telemedicine is Effective
First, as many as 72 percent of respondents in the Capterra survey said that telemedicine was effective in solving their problem, with only 11 percent needing repeat appointments, and 12 percent saying that they had to finally book an in-person appointment to get to the bottom of their issue.
It’s Mostly Done on the Phone
While many assume telehealth must work with a video/visual element, in fact this is not the case. The Capterra survey revealed that 79 percent of users were using telehealth via phone call, with less than 20 percent adding video conferencing into that call. It also found that 81 percent of users accessed these services via a personal mobile device rather than via a computer.
Problems to Solve
Telehealth may already be proving its worth in Australia and beyond, but it’s far from perfect. It’s obvious that with current technology, in-person physical examination is still a necessary part of many diagnoses. On top of that, respondents to Capterra’s survey only returned an 8-percent positive response when asking if telehealth was better than their in-person experience with a doctor or nurse.
What it shows is that there are still many pain points for consumers that are to be overcome, but telehealth has come far from the fringes. In an age where concerns about infectious disease are heightened, there’s every reason to believe telehealth adoption will accelerate in the coming years.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.