from a financial opportunity and market perspective, COVID-19 does have benefits for telemedicine and other areas of the digital health industry.

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This may sound rude, but from a financial opportunity and market perspective, COVID-19 does have benefits for telemedicine and other areas of the digital health industry.
Guidelines for social distancing — as well as emergency reimbursement changes and regulatory exemptions — the rocket is launched — the adoption of telemedicine and remote monitoring technology. This boom has opened up numerous markets and investment opportunities, and paved the way for some major improvements in patient care.
Many experts say that the pandemic has only exacerbated trends already on the road.
“The need to provide care in atypical locations already exists with COVID,” said Ian Meredith, MD, global chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Boston Scientific, at a summit hosted by Veeva Systems in November. “As the aging population grows along with the increase in non-communicable diseases, it has become increasingly obvious that the traditional medical care delivery model needs to be changed to adapt to this aging population with multiple non-communicable diseases. COVID is only accelerating some of these changes and we know it is coming.”
Mercom released a report in April that helped provide some of the latest statistics on the digital health boom. These are just some of the main findings in the report:
The chart below, provided by Mercom Capital Group, provides a good overview of the quarterly venture capital trend from the beginning of the first quarter of 2020 to the end of the first quarter of 2021.
According to the CDC’s research on telemedicine trends during the COVID-19 pandemic published in October 2020, the policy changes and regulatory exemptions of the Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers implemented in March 2020 are the main driving forces for the adoption of telemedicine. The authors of the report also pointed out that the provisions of the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act are a factor in these trends.
“These emergency policies include improving provider payments for telemedicine, allowing providers to provide services to patients out of state, authorizing multiple types of providers to provide telemedicine services, reducing or waiving patient cost sharing, and obtaining permission from federally qualified medical centers Or rural health clinics provide telemedicine services. The exemption also allows virtual visits in patients’ homes, rather than in medical institutions,” the author of the CDC report wrote.
In the past 15 months, the benefits of telemedicine and remote monitoring technology have been fully reported by MD+DI and even the mass media. We will introduce these “professionals” later. But first, let’s look at some of the less-reported unintended consequences that need attention as adoption continues.
The most worrying “disadvantage” of rapid adoption of telemedicine technology is the digital divide in access to telemedicine services. The American Medical Association (AMA) recognized this concern through policy approval earlier this week to help ensure that minority communities, individuals living in underserved rural and urban areas, the elderly, and the disabled have access to telemedicine Benefits and promises.
The AMA, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, pointed out that in 2019, 25 million people in the U.S. were unable to access the Internet at home, and 14 million people did not have equipment that can play video —???? Two-way audio and video telemedicine is essential????? For example, smart phones or computers. Even for patients who can access the Internet at home, bandwidth issues are an obstacle to accessing telemedicine services. The organization said that for patients with only smartphones, two-way audio and video remote medical access may be a challenge.
The AMA also pointed out that a greater proportion of blacks and Latinos cannot access the Internet at home. The organization pointed out that compared with people in urban areas, people living in rural areas are less likely to have access to the Internet at home.
????During the COVID-19 pandemic, with the development of telemedicine, many people are trapped off-site. With the development of telemedicine, we must ensure that they will not fall behind. We must recognize that broadband Internet access is a determinant of social health, says David Aizuss, MD, board member of the AMA.
At the special meeting, doctors, residents, and medical students passed policies that promote initiatives to strengthen digital literacy, emphasizing programs designed for historical minorities and marginalized populations. AMA stated that what it thinks is the telemedicine solution and service provider? ? ? ? In their design and implementation work? ? ? ? Need to work directly with people whose products are designed to help and serve. AMA urges that culture, language, accessibility, and digital literacy must be considered when designing telemedicine functions and content.
????Doctors must act as key partners in efforts to improve access to telemedicine services in historically marginalized and minority communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have more patients using telemedicine, and we should use this opportunity to ensure that all of our patients can benefit from being able to access and use telemedicine services???? Regardless of their background Or what’s the location, â????? Esus said.
The new AMA policy requires the expansion of physician qualifications to participate in programs that assist in the purchase of services and equipment to provide telemedicine services. This will help strengthen broadband infrastructure and increase the use of connected devices among historically marginalized, minority and underserved populations.
In addition, the policy recognizes that all health care stakeholders must participate in efforts to provide telemedicine services for all. Working with different patient groups, hospitals, health systems, and health programs need to initiate interventions aimed at improving telemedicine access, including leading outreach activities. In order to spread the benefits of telemedicine, AMA said it will support efforts to design telemedicine solutions to accommodate those who have difficulty accessing technology, including the elderly, visually impaired and disabled.
The main message of the new AMA policy is that the organization supports the potential of telemedicine to address long-term health inequalities, while recognizing the importance of incorporating fairness-centric design and implementation into such initiatives.
WIRED published a report this week that also put forward some interesting points on the pros and cons of remote monitoring technology. This article was written by Neil Singer, a primary care physician in Brighton, England, and a senior teaching researcher at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. It shared a case study that Singer called one of his “ghosts” One, a 7-year-old boy who died from complications of enterovirus infection. Singh wrote about a remote monitoring system. He said that this system might have saved the little boy’s life.
Singh said that the system is designed to continuously monitor and collect patient data and has recently been made wireless. He pointed out that the technology is being tested on patients in a hospital in Birmingham, England, but it and similar remote systems may be used on patients? ? ? ? The home of the future.
Singh also acknowledged in his article that there are flaws in remote monitoring technology, including false alarms (which may lead to a “wolf is coming” scenario), and may even “separate patients from their health workers, allowing theoretically unlimited distances. Between people.”
Although Singh did raise a question about the socio-economic gap in access to remote monitoring equipment, a bigger takeaway of this article is that this technology may help improve care for underserved communities. He took Australia as an example and pointed out that one third of Australians live in rural and remote areas.
Singh wrote about a non-profit organization called Integratedliving, which provides remote health monitoring of vital signs for older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Participants record their vital signs and then transmit the data to an automated platform that prioritizes the readings for clinical review based on the degree of abnormality. Singh pointed out that a study of the project showed that the program not only costs less than in-person care, but also results in a more timely and accurate diagnosis. In addition, he wrote that most participants found using the system reassuring and gained insight into their health and how to manage it.
A new study by Juniper Research shows that another major advantage of the telemedicine boom is the potential healthcare savings. The Basingstoke, UK-based company reported in May that by 2025, telemedicine will save the healthcare industry US$21 billion in costs, up from US$11 billion in 2021. This means that the growth rate in the next four years will exceed 80%. Researchers define telemedicine as a concept involving remote provision of healthcare services, including technologies such as remote consultation, remote patient monitoring, and chat robots. However, even this study warns that savings will be limited to developed countries, as these countries generally use the required equipment and Internet connections. The author points out in the free white paper that this means that by 2025, more than 80% of the savings will be attributed to North America and Europe: Doctors are always there: How remote consultations can improve patient care.