Virtual medicine goes mainstream
Making the most of a telehealth revolution
How has telemedicine expanded this year?
The pandemic has dramatically altered how doctors’ offices and medical centers provide care to patients. During the first peak of the pandemic in the spring, some medical offices and centers saw their telehealth appointments jump from a pre-Covid level of about 5 percent of their total patient visits (the rest being in-person) to 95 percent, according to John Halamka, M.D., president of Mayo Clinic Platform, the medical center’s digital division. Teladoc Health, one of the leading virtual care companies in the United States, reported that its business doubled in just six weeks. By September, telehealth had dropped to around 25 percent of visits, Halamka estimates—still five times the pre-pandemic number.
What can a doctor diagnose in a virtual session?
Mostly nonemergency, less-complicated complaints, such as acne, allergies, flu, nausea, pink eye, rashes, sore throat, uncomplicated UTIs, vaginitis, coughs, certain gastrointestinal issues, sprains, and sinus infections. Telehealth can also be used to help manage or provide follow-up care for chronic conditions, including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, colitis, and asthma. However, virtual care is not perfect: a 2016 study found that when it came to diagnosing acute illnesses such as strep throat, ankle pain, or a woman’s UTI, doctors got it wrong about a quarter of the time—though it’s not clear if that’s a notably higher rate of misdiagnosis than that of inperson visits. On a positive note, when researchers in a study published last year in The American Journal of Managed Care asked patients and clinicians to rate their telemedicine visits versus their in-person ones, they found that a majority of both groups reported no difference in overall quality; in addition, virtual visits were vastly preferred by patients for convenience, while most clinicians found them more efficient.
Should I go to my regular doctor?
There is a very good chance that your primary care physician is now offering some form of virtual visit. Because of all the recent federal, state, and private-insurer policy changes around