Why Telehealth Is The Future Of Healthcare Industry

Imagine that every time you asked Alexa to turn on a light or Siri to play a song, your phone was also paying attention to subtle clues in your voice to detect details about your physical and mental health. 

While this might sound like something out of science fiction, this type of technology is right around the corner. It is much more than replacing office visitations with Zoom calls. 

Instead it’s the adoption of technology and ideas to redefine how providers interact with patients, deliver care, manage medications, and create personalized healthcare experiences tailored uniquely to you. 

Telehealth is the Future Healthcare

Telehealth is set to become a $250 billion industry within a few short years. Providers are ready for this shift, and so are the majority of patients. 

While telemedicine offers so many advantages to patients and providers, it does have one major risk—the potential exposure of patient health information to cybercriminals.  

Read now Star’s recent article on the data privacy & security must-haves for re-engineering of telehealth platforms to help you understand these risks and how providers can deliver safe telehealth solutions. 

Here are five reasons why tele health is the future of the healthcare industry: 

1. Telehealth is Personal

Every person is different. In addition to personal health, how people react to different treatments can vary greatly. In the past, care providers have relied on methods that were successful in large enough groups of people to be considered safe and effective enough to apply to their individual patients. However, there is always a risk of treatment not being effective or even having malicious side effects. 

The centre of This platform focuses on personalized care. For now, they use biomarkers, wearables, remote patient monitoring and large masses of individual data along with AI and machine learning to help providers make more informed decisions. 

Over the next few years, we’ll continue seeing further It breakthroughs across the entire healthcare spectrum that will ensure the course of treatment is always uniquely fit the individual. 

2. Telehealth is Convenient 

The average wait time for a physician appointment in the US is now 24 days—a 30% increase since 2014. When people finally make it into the office, the wait is so long that 53% of patients have to leave before seeing the doctor. 

Scheduling and virtual visits are fundamental to telehealth. Patients can now receive care much more quickly. They also don’t have to find time in their busy schedules to make a trip to the doctor’s office—a particular benefit for those living far from care providers or suffering from mobility issues. 

Likewise, since caregivers are less restricted by geography, they have a larger audience and can also provide expanded access to care while increasing patient satisfaction rates and revenue.  

3. Telehealth is Safer 

Simply going to a healthcare facility can put patients and healthcare staff at risk, especially when some people suffer from infectious diseases while others have compromised immune systems. 

This is exactly the reason why COVID-19 was such a game-changer. To reduce the risk for patients and providers, governments around the world rapidly eased telehealth restrictions to allow providers to use these services to treat patients of all types.

4. Telehealth is Effective

Because these platforms expand not only the number of care offerings but also flexibility for both patients and providers, it is highly effective. This comes with increased contact. Rather than a once-monthly or less often appointment, patients interact more frequently, receive more accurate information about their current health, and have more opportunity to try out alternative therapies. 

Nowhere is this more true than in prescription management. Now patients can receive prescription drugs delivered to them on the same day as their virtual visit inside carefully delineated packages that provide them both the time and the exact medication that should be taken then. 

This has not only led to increased prescription adherence but also sizably reduced prescription error rates. 

5. Telehealth is Holistic

This is the most important takeaway. It covers all aspects of health. It’s not limited to specific conditions or even to people who may be feeling unwell. 

Health & wellness is a huge component of tele health and includes everything from wearable like the Apple Watch and Fitbit to access to wellness coaches who can help people manage work-related stress. 

In many ways, it is as much about preventative care as it is creating new treatment modalities. 

Why Create a Telehealth Solution Now? 

Before COVID-19, telehealth was rapidly growing in importance and usage over the last five years. Now, however, it has become an essential channel for the delivery of care. 

Which is why all Future Healthcare providers, along with related industry players, including retailers, payers and device manufacturers, must position themselves accordingly. 

Are you ready to change the healthcare industry? 

Now’s the time to start getting creative and put your telehealth ideas into practice.