“Telehealth” has become a household word, and the data backs that up. Before the pandemic, a survey conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration looked at telehealth activities between 2017-2019. They found that more than half of households in the US engaged in telemedicine and telehealth-related activities.
That was before the COVID-19 pandemic. How prevalent is telehealth in the lives of Americans now? The study, “COVID-19 transforms health care through telemedicine: Evidence from the field,” published in the Journal of the American Informatics Association, looked closely at virtual care visits. The growth they found in telehealth visits since the pandemic is unfathomable. The study revealed a 683% increase in telehealth urgent care visits in the health system. Even more astonishing, they showed that nonurgent virtual-care visits grew by 4,345% from March 2 to April 14, 2020.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has increased widespread awareness of how vital telehealth is as a resource. Telehealth has grown leaps and bounds over the past year and will to rapidly increase in the future. A new report from Frost & Sullivan states that by 2025, telehealth will have increased by sevenfold.
Broadband experts indicate that telehealth will have a significant impact on the local economies of rural, urban, and suburban communities. In the new survey, “Broadband, Local Economies & the Age of COVID,” respondents said since the pandemic, that they noted an increase in telehealth as “a local economic tool.” This survey asked 200 experts in economic development how communities have responded and how they can recover “the Age of COVID” as it relates to broadband.
When asked about how medical professionals and mental healthcare services economically affected communities, there was a notable increase of value compared to pre-pandemic times. 41% of survey respondents believe attracting more health care professionals to communities impacts local economies, compared to only 26% in 2019. 32% said mental healthcare services benefit economies and increase from 2019 by 8%.
Not only does telehealth provide residents more equitable access to healthcare, but it can also stimulate rural economies through the creation of local jobs. In 2020, the US Telehealth market size is valued at USD 9.5 billion, an 80% increase over 2019.
Ann Marie Day, executive director of the New England Rural Health Association reflected on the economic benefits telehealth brings to rural communities. “They’re [Outer Cape Health Services] not just providing quality health care, but they’re also an economic driver in the community,” she said. “They provide a lot of jobs and bring a lot of folks to the community to work, so it’s really important to be able to invest in those rural safety-net providers.”
According to the US Census Bureau’s “House Pulse Survey,” that looks at households with students showed that a staggering 3.7 million lack internet access. Community leaders and broadband advocates in rural and underserved communities, and municipalities that do not have access to quality high-speed internet are advocating for that to change. Yet, the challenges municipalities face and rural areas must overcome to bring broadband are complex, from federal or state restrictions to funding, to topography-infrastructure issues.
Although there is no stopping the growth of telehealth, it still has a long way to go, according to experts who participated in a panel that discussed the current state of telehealth sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. From equitable access to regulations to training medical professionals, telehealth is weaving a web of issues that must be solved for it to be successful.
On the panel, Laura Hoffman, a senior research fellow at Yale Law School’s Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy emphasized the need to proactively recognize the disparities that telehealth could pose.
“Telehealth will be as successful as it is accessible to our most vulnerable populations,” Hoffman said. “We have the potential to end up creating a doubling of health care disparities in the United States if we don’t properly address those needs.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was the fuel that accelerated the adoption of telehealth into many homes of Americans in record time, while many were left behind due to inequitable access to broadband. Today, forward-thinking communities and broadband leaders are actively maneuvering the fast-paced growth of virtual healthcare to ensure healthcare equity is a top priority.
