However we choose to envision the future of health care, we can expect technology to play a central role by breaking down the traditional walls of the exam room and connecting patients with physicians like never before.
This new frontier began to take shape during the COVID-19 pandemic when the use of telehealth and remote care soared. In 2016, only 14 percent of physicians conducted virtual visits with patients. By last year, that number had doubled—and today, in the face of this pandemic, it has expanded even more.
Studies conducted in May 2020 showed that more than 90 percent of physicians—including caregivers on the front lines of the COVID-19 response effort—were treating patients remotely. And nearly half of those physicians were using telehealth technology for the first time.
We will need physician leaders, government, and health organizations working collaboratively to ensure that challenges of efficacy, privacy, and equity do not become barriers to widespread telehealth adoption.
This fundamental change in how physicians deliver care, and how patients experience it, bodes well for the future. Moving forward, we will need physician leaders, government, and health organizations working collaboratively to ensure that challenges of efficacy, privacy, and equity do not become barriers to widespread telehealth adoption.
Telehealth is an incredibly powerful tool in caring for patients with various forms of chronic disease, the treatment of which absorbs nearly 90 percent of US health-care spending. In addition, telehealth is invaluable in preventive care as well as in treating acute conditions like COVID-19, particularly as it keeps patients from exposing others. The potential of telehealth may be transformative, but significant work remains to ensure all who need it can gain access.
On a recent morning at my allergy practice in Fort Worth, Texas, my schedule included routine checkups for a pair of women, both older but not elderly, whose mobility was impaired and who used a walker or motorized scooter to get around. During prior visits to my practice location, these patients were often disagreeable as they shared a litany of non-specific medical complaints such as general fatigue and headaches. I just never felt that I had helped them sufficiently.
But on our telehealth calls that morning, I was stunned to find that the women were cheerful and relaxed, and seemed genuinely satisfied with our conversation and our therapeutic path forward. I soon realized that it was simply because they did not have to have to come into my office that morning.
Most of us take physical mobility for granted. But for these two patients, traveling to see me was most likely a frustrating, physically exhausting, humiliating, or even painful experience. I was humbled to realize that telehealth is a wonderful gift to patients in many circumstances. I have embraced this technology to treat patients without transportation, who could not afford to miss work, whose childcare arrangements had fallen through—the list is almost endless.
The American Medical Association (AMA) continues to assemble a broad range of initiatives and resources designed to help physicians maintain continuity of care in the face of physical distancing and other changes brought forth by the pandemic. Continuity of care is an essential consideration for all patients and is particularly important in treating those dealing with multiple conditions who may be taking several medications.
The AMA’s newly released Telehealth Implementation Playbook, available for free on our website, outlines a clear, efficient path to rapid, scaled implementation of audio and visual visits, along with a wealth of institutional knowledge and best practices curated from experts in the field. Physicians who provide clinical services in a telehealth setting must uphold the standards of professionalism expected during in-person interactions. They must also be proficient in the use of telehealth technology and recognize the limits it imposes.
There is no silver lining to a pandemic that has brought so much suffering and grief to so many. But the widespread implementation of telehealth services that allow physicians to remotely provide expert care to their patients will transform health care for the better in the years ahead.