How Telemedicine has Helped Slow the Spread of COVID-19

Telemedicine is something that offers a wide range of considerable benefits and is a healthcare service that has been growing in popularity for some time now. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has vastly accelerated the prominence of telemedicine services over the past couple of years and has driven innovations that now position telemedicine for even more accelerated growth.

Since the start of the pandemic, limiting the spread of COVID-19 due to hospital and clinic visits has been a vital yet difficult goal for healthcare professionals. Reducing the number of in-person encounters between patients and providers became important for protecting both patients and physicians alike. However, limiting the number of visits between patients and physicians also meant that many patients were unable to receive the healthcare services that they needed.

Telemedicine quickly became the ideal solution to this problem. By offering services remotely, physicians were still able to diagnose patients and prescribe treatments without having to meet with those patients face-to-face, therefore eliminating the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Telemedicine suddenly became a vital tool in our fight against the virus’s spread, and innovation regarding the technologies and processes that enable telemedicine services has accelerated dramatically since early 2020.

In addition to helping limit the spread of infectious diseases, telemedicine also offers a number of other noteworthy benefits. By making healthcare more convenient and affordable, telemedicine enables underserved communities to access better healthcare services. Telemedicine also allows for easier collaboration between physicians and healthcare facilities regardless of their geographic location.

Thanks to these benefits and the rapid growth in telemedicine innovation that we have seen over the past two years, the growth of telemedicine is a trend that is likely to continue long after the social distancing concerns that have fueled its recent growth are no more.