Telehealth Is Here to Stay

One of the lasting changes born of the pandemic is the expectation by healthcare providers that they will continue to leverage telehealth and remote patient monitoring platforms in their practices. According to the “COVID 19 Telehealth Impact Study” conducted by the COVID 19 Healthcare Coalition, in 2018 only 18% of physicians incorporated telehealth as part of their care model, primarily due to reimbursement barriers. 

During the pandemic, payors needed to respond quickly to the need, and they largely did. Today, almost 50% of surveyed physicians have telehealth as some component of their care model. This shift across the healthcare ecosystem has had positive impacts in many areas from primary care to behavioral health, and even remote patient monitoring and other medical devices. As more people permanently work from home and want to see their physicians remotely, it only follows that healthcare products would need to accommodate this shift as well.

Healthcare Providers Want Telehealth to Continue

The management of chronic diseases, for example, is known to improve with the addition of remote monitoring and the increased provider access afforded by telehealth. It is well known by payors and providers alike that the 5% of the population that have chronic conditions make up about 50% of the total annual U.S. healthcare expenditure. If those patients can be treated through remote technologies, including medical devices, patients have better outcomes and costs are reduced. According to the COVID 19 Healthcare Coalition study, 75% of physicians reported they would like to continue to offer digital services for chronic disease management post-public health emergency (PHE).

Consumer Adoption Leads the Way

Today, consumers are embracing all types of health-related technology, from wearables that track your exercise, sleep, heart rate variability to phone apps that help a person breath more deeply and manage stress. With advancements in data security, cloud services, and product manufacturing, it’s only natural for remote patient monitoring medical device companies and independent device testing facilities (IDTFs) to follow this trend.

Telehealth Adoption Benefits Providers

There’s no doubt that remote healthcare, whether through telehealth consultation or medical devices, offers many patient benefits from convenience to reduced exposure risks for high-risk patients. There are many benefits for providers as well. For example, remote patient monitoring provides the ability to track key metrics over time, which provides greater insight than one-off data points gathered at periodic appointments. Being able to see trends helps identify root causes and treatment efficacy. Today’s medical device technology enables providers to better monitor, and thus improve patient health.

Remote health monitoring devices can monitor a broad range of things, including blood pressure, glucose levels, electrocardiography (ECG) and heart rate data, and maternity care. As the adoption of both telehealth and remote monitoring continue to expand, providers are optimistic that patients will achieve better healthcare outcomes as a result. This translates directly to a better quality of life, with physicians and patients able to meet their healthcare goals.

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