Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been a trending topic in the healthcare field. While telemedicine is certainly more important now than ever before, its origins far pre-date the origins of COVID-19. In fact, the origin of telemedicine can be traced all the way back to the 1960s when NASA was looking to develop ways to provide remote healthcare services to astronauts on long-duration missions. By the same token, telemedicine is something that we can expect to continue playing an increasingly prominent role in modern healthcare long after the COVID-19 pandemic is fully defeated. In this article, we’ll take a look at the current state of telemedicine and the important role that it is already playing as well as what the future might hold in store for this promising innovation.
What is Telemedicine?
Before we dive into the current importance of telemedicine and its potential future, let’s first define what telemedicine is and the innovations that make it possible. Telemedicine (also known as telehealth and virtual medicine) is defined as the remote distribution of healthcare services and information via electronic communications technology. At the time when telemedicine was first developed and named, the telephone was the only such technology that allowed for remote communication between doctors and their patients. Today, though, telemedicine encompasses a much wider range of technologies than its dated name suggests, including everything from text messages and emails to video conferencing software.
Aside from the benefit of keeping patients and doctors safe in the era of social distancing, telemedicine provides a number of other noteworthy benefits. For example, it is hoped that telemedicine will be able to improve the healthcare of poor, underserved communities by reducing the expense and hassle associated with making an in-person visit to the doctor. Another key benefit of telemedicine is the fact that it allows physicians to communicate with their patients on a much more frequent basis. This can be especially beneficial for chronic condition management.
Telemedicine and COVID-19 – Keeping patients and physicians safe in these difficult times
The COVID-19 pandemic may not have directly created the innovations involved in telemedicine, but it certainly accelerated their adoption. Since its earliest days, one of the biggest benefits of telemedicine has been the role it plays in helping prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Thanks to telemedicine, patients who were suspected of having an infectious illness were able to meet with their physicians without exposing those physicians and everyone else present at the facility to their disease. Likewise, telemedicine is also able to protect patients who are not already infected with an infectious disease by enabling them to visit with their doctor without having to enter a healthcare facility where exposure to infectious diseases is more likely.
This benefit made pivoting to an increased reliance on telemedicine an obvious choice when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Suddenly, an in-person visit to a healthcare facility became more dangerous than ever before for patients and healthcare professionals alike. To this end, telemedicine has played a vital role in helping doctors continue to serve their patients without increasing the chances of COVID-19 transmission. Virtual meetings with physicians became all the more common and have undoubtedly helped save a lot of lives in these difficult times.
The shortcomings of Telemedicine
While telemedicine certainly offers a number of impressive benefits, there are a few shortcomings to telemedicine that are worth pointing out as well. The first and most obvious of these shortcomings is the fact that not all healthcare services can be performed remotely. Imaging tests, blood work, and diagnoses that require a more hands-on investigation are all impossible to perform via remote, electronic means.

Another drawback of telemedicine is the fact that transmitting sensitive personal health data electronically creates a security concern. With data breaches becoming increasingly common, stronger cybersecurity within the healthcare industry is certainly a prerequisite for the successful adoption of telemedicine.
Lastly, there’s the fact that many insurance companies still refuse to cover the costs of telemedicine services. While the need for telemedicine created by the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged insurance payers to cover more telemedicine expenses, there are still plenty of services that are not yet fully covered, leading to out-of-pocket costs for the patient.
Thankfully, though, most of the current shortcomings of telemedicine are solvable with changes in policy and better technology. With enough time and pressure, insurance payers will eventually come around to treating telemedicine services like any other healthcare service. The cybersecurity of healthcare practices can certainly be strengthened as well with further investment and improved technology. And while there will likely always be certain healthcare services that can only be administered in-person, the steady march of technology is increasing the number of services that can be administered remotely with every year that passes.
What the future of Telemedicine holds in store
It’s fairly safe to say that the prominence of telemedicine will continue to grow in the coming years. In fact, it is now predicted that telemedicine will soon become a standard service that is offered across all healthcare settings. When and if this becomes the case, the healthcare practices that fully embrace telemedicine will be the ones who enjoy the highest revenue growth. It is estimated that hospitals in the United States lost $202.6 billion from March 2020 to June 2020 alone from patients putting off medical procedures due to social distancing concerns. While the concerns that created this loss in revenue may eventually dissipate, telemedicine services will continue to serve as a safeguard against future revenue losses. Likewise, it is predicted that patients will value telemedicine more and more as its prominence grows and will choose their healthcare providers at least in-part based on the quality of the telemedicine services that they offer. At Bikham Healthcare, we are dedicated to helping healthcare practices navigate the current landscape of revenue management while at the same time helping them prepare for what the future will bring. If you would like to learn more about the innovative technological solutions and industry-leading services that we provide, feel free to contact us today!