Top Telehealth Trends To Watch In 2022

Without further ado, let us face the reality. We are now in the middle of a global pandemic and we all know, that it is very scary to even step out of our home, to tend to our everyday needs. Covid-19 has made everyone face the cruel reality, of how mankind can be turned upside down, overnight.

Then there is social distancing, lockdowns, and no social gatherings, not more than 3 to 4 people-groups in streets, only emergency travels, and so and so made people worry about their health, work, and even their mere existence.

People couldn’t find solutions to recover from their psychological difficulties and there were cases of life-threatening emergencies, all over the news which made everything worse.

But many people all over the world found ways to help and self-recover from the disastrous waves and have started adopting “Covid-friendly normal life”. So, the question to be noted here is, “how did they manage to get through this and come out safe and successful?”

Everything has started changing to digital means, even before the pandemic and this has made everything easy. Things had gone digital for easy and safe access by the users, be it of any kind. This helped medical providers too. This is where telehealth comes into action.

Telehealth And RPM:

First of all, let us understand the term, “Telehealth”. It refers to the healthcare services provided through virtual means. This allows one to reach and communicate with their healthcare providers safely and quickly by using simple Telecommunication techniques. Such as telephonic chats, live video calls, health apps, remote patient monitoring, etc.

The other types of telehealth include mobile healthcare applications, audio-only visits, live video calls, transferring of recorder videos/audios, e-visits, case-based teleconferencing, remote patient monitoring

Mainly Remote Patient Monitoring, which allows the providers to check on you and track your progress outside the traditional clinical methods.

So overall, what is Telehealth in official words?

The Health Resources Services Administration defines telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. – 17th October 2019.

READ MORE: Telehealth Software : Top 10 Must Have Features

Who Is Most Likely To Use Telehealth Services?

Anyone can use telehealth services to make their work easier. It provides easy access in lesser time. The providers are continuously trying to adopt new techniques and ideas, to improve their services to a quality that cannot be beaten by others in the market due to heavy competition. But,

The younger generation with no time to waste, are keener to use the telehealth services.

We also cannot avoid the fact, that Senior citizens and older generation people, who are meticulously trying to keep up, are also using some of the services with the assistance they need.

 It is even not so hard for the uneducated people, because the amenities needed to use telehealth services are available vast and in their regional languages.

Increase In The Usage:

According to a source, the healthcare industries were only limited to, or people were only concentrated on tending to the common conditions, making appointments, follow-ups, etc. in the early 2020s.

However, there was a sudden surge in the usage of telehealth services due to the increased proportion of COVID-19 related encounters during the last 3 weeks of March 2020.

This led to the changes in practice patterns, which removed the concerns with immediate response and long-term population health.

The government has created and provided various facilities, in collaboration, to make use of this facility to ensure more safety. This paved way for many telehealth policy changes and regulatory waivers, to provide increased access to primary, acute, chronic, and special care needed during and after the pandemic.

Most Valued Features And Challenges: From The People’s Point Of View

The most valued features are,

• They increase the continuity of the care received
• They can have access to the care whenever they need
• Reduction of travel expenses and time
• Remote Patient Monitoring techniques used here will reduce the fear of clinical shortages
• Helps the people in rural and unreachable areas to get access to quality healthcare services
• All types of patients will be served equal and better 
• Especially COVID-19 screening has been made easy without approaching hospitals
• It helps in the reduction of the spread
• Can ensure better and safe treatment from their home
• Helps people with psychological concerns even without revealing their personal information.

The challenges faced are,

• There are still many people who do not know, even to this date, how to get hold of and use technologies to reach their healthcare providers
• This increases the chances of getting infected
• Getting a mode of transmission costs money. It cannot be afforded by everyone
• Adoption becomes a major issue. Some people don’t believe in telehealth services and don’t even try it out for once, because of a lack of knowledge.
• Some are adamant, even though they understand its benefits.
• Telehealth systems reduce the access to small individual health firms and clinics, thus limiting the growth.
• Telehealth services are less necessary for procedures like eye examinations, specific body aches, clinical procedures, etc., and complaints regarding dental, gynaecologic, multiple complex health concerns, etc.

READ MORE: How To Overcome The Challenges In Implementing Telehealth?

Telehealth Trends In 2022

 Some of the telehealth trends, which are likely to keep an eye on, in the year 2022, are

1.The hybrid model

The hybrid model here refers to the combination of both telehealth and in-patient healthcare. It is where the patients and doctors can connect better, and process with good quality to provide solutions to their problems and challenges.

Many providers experienced a decrease in the number of virtual visits in the year 2021. This was because they were forced to go online in 2020. However, due to the relaxations, they are returning to their in-person care.

They are shifting towards the hybrid model of healthcare. The providers are now using telehealth as a supplement to their in-person healthcare services. We expect that more and more providers start using this model of healthcare in the future.

2. More healthcare at home

Lots of telehealth companies started using advanced telehealth integrations to improve the quality of care that patients receive at their convenience. We expect to see more start-ups appear in the future with ideas to improve healthcare services received at home.

3. Increased adoption

Due to the easy handling and quality services provided, Telehealth is becoming more and more adaptable this year and also in the future.

4. Innovation of new devices

Telehealth uses technologies home monitoring, telemonitoring  devices, remote monitoring centers, etc. to make every service efficient. There will be an increase In these industries in the following years.

5. EHR-based telehealth

Healthcare experts should be able to access data on their patients at any time. Otherwise, their system will be overloaded and some tasks can be ignored. Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology allows healthcare experts to keep access to the data and records of their patients at any time. This makes it necessary for the providers to adapt to the use of EHR to meet the future needs of the patients.

Final Thoughts

Telehealth makes everything easy to reach. So, it is safe for all the providers to adapt to the services through telehealth to stay in the competition and shine alone. Hold on tight and be Innovative, because the world is changing in a good digital way.

Does your healthcare practice need the best telehealth software to connect with your patients online? We are here to help. Reach out today to connect with one of our experts and get started.