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Telehealth has come a long way since the Covid-induced boom, but a lot hinges on its continued success, according to Joseph Kvedar, MD. In this piece, he examines the impact it has had, the vision for what telehealth can be, and the steps organizations can take to get there.
If telehealth can consistency provide a convenient virtual environment, as well as a clinical workflow that identifies which patients and conditions are appropriate for telehealth services, it’s far more likely to be able to compete with in-person care, according to Joseph Kvedar, MD, Senior Advisor, at the MGH Center for Innovation.
The answer to the most basic question surrounding telehealth — ‘Is it as good as in-person care?’ — is anything but simple, according to Dr. Joseph Kvedar. In this piece, he examines the pros and cons of different types of clinical research and shares examples from recent literature that can help uncover some answers.
The problem with digital health adoption? Developers (especially startups) want to move quickly, whereas physicians want to see evidence, which can be “time-consuming and expensive to obtain,” according to Joseph Kvedar, MD.
Simply saying that telehealth is the right thing to do, or that patients demand it, won’t be enough to resist the magnetic force drawing us back to in-person care, says Joe Kvedar, MD. “We need to come up with logical, financially sound reasons for providers to pivot long term.”
