Telemedicine is an up-and-coming field in the medical discipline, allowing healthcare professionals to provide remote clinical consultations and services. Such services are carried out through electronic audio and visual means for communication with patients. The most commonly used forms of telemedicine involve telephones for direct consultations rather than physical clinical visits. Simultaneously, telemedicine encompasses revolutionary innovations like telesurgery, where surgeons use visual and tactile information to guide robotic instruments to perform surgery remotely.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, teleconsultations were solely limited members of the OECD, which consisted of 38 countries, and within it, it only accounted for 0.1% to 0.2% of all medical appointments in multiple countries. However, as COVID-19 disrupted face-to-face clinical interactions in 2020, governments began to promote the use of telemedicine, with teleconsultations playing an increasingly vital role in maintaining access to healthcare. Particularly, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that telehealth visits increased from 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million that year, with greater demand for virtual discussions nowadays.
There are several benefits to the provision of telemedicine, including:
Expanding healthcare access to increase inclusivity towards those unable to travel to clinics and hospitals due to distance, time, or physical ailments
Increasing cost-effectiveness from more efficient resource and office staff management
Lowering missed appointments due to last-minute scheduling conflicts
Enabling daily monitoring of chronic illnesses
Allowing rural areas with medical staff shortages to consult with professional providers
Allowing immediate issue resolution to prevent prolonged discomfort
However, telemedicine promises more than being a convenient passing trend during the pandemic, continually advancing with technological evolution. For instance, the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning are quickly being integrated into healthcare. Currently, machine learning has been customizing treatments to adapt to the unique needs of each patient, whilst chatbots and virtual health assistants have been providing consistent, immediate support for patients electronically to efficiently address queries of vast patient demographics. Furthermore, these advanced systems are capable of regularly monitoring blood pressure and glucose levels daily, thus enabling prompt medical attention from on-call healthcare professionals if any issues are to be detected.
Therefore, as of 2023 and onwards, telemedicine is paving the way for a healthcare system that harmoniously blends technological innovations with healthcare to improve accessibility, cost-efficiency, and personalized care. The market of telemedicine, currently valued at $3 billion, according to McKinsey, harbours the potential to expand to a staggering $250 billion and shows promising contributions to health management.