Telemedicine: the post-Covid future

(by Andrea Bisciglia) Telemedicine remained for a long time not very widespread and at the level of simple experimentation, but with the health emergency Covid-19 registered a real boom of interest among operators in the sector.

The Covid-19 emergency has accelerated the digital and organizational transformation, specifies Andrea Bisciglia, cardiologist and head of the AIDR Digital Health Observatory, placing the emphasis on precision medicine, oriented towards the territory and continuity of care.

General practitioners are the most convinced: one in three already used Telemedicine before the emergency, 62% of those who did not apply it will do so in the future and only 5% are against it. Three out of four specialists believe that Telemedicine was decisive in the emergency phase, but still 30% of them say they are against use, against 34% who already used it and 36% who convinced themselves of the benefits and intend to apply it in the future.

The Telemedicine services that most attract the interest of doctors are Tele-consultation with a specialist, Tele-consultation with a general practitioner and Tele-monitoring, followed by Tele-Assistance and Tele-Cooperation. On average, according to General Practitioners, 30% of visits to chronic patients and 29% of visits to other types of patients could be carried out through digital tools, while for specialist doctors these percentages drop to 24% and 18 respectively %.

As for citizens, one in three would like to experience a Tele-Visit with their general practitioner, 29% with a specialist, another 29% a Tele-Monitoring of their clinical parameters and one in four would try a video call with a psychologist . For citizens not interested in these applications, the main reason is the preference to meet the doctor in person (59%).

In this emergency phase, over half of citizens inquired about Covid19 through digital channels: 56% consulted institutional web pages, 28% social doctors, 17% social or blogs cured by citizens, 12% dedicated apps to Coronavirus.

Digital technologies can make the difference in all phases of prevention, access, care and assistance of patients, to help healthcare professionals in clinical decisions and healthcare structures in continuity of care and in operations. The emergency is an opportunity to experiment with solutions that maximize the benefits: contain the contagion, reduce hospitalizations, manage patients in the area. But also to redesign the models of care by accelerating the transition towards a more connected, sustainable and resilient healthcare model.

In addition, the Covid-19 emergency forced General Practitioners (GPs) to reduce patient flows to the office and increase their telephone availability. 51% of the GPs interviewed worked remotely during the emergency and overall the experience was positive both in terms of sharing information (63% of GPs) and in terms of responding to urgent requests (63%) , while the main difficulty was reconciling work and private life (38% negatively assessed this aspect).

Covid-19 has therefore given an acceleration to Telemedicine which will be difficult to ignore and doctors have understood how Telemedicine can represent an important ally to maintain a more constant and appropriate contact with patients.

Telemedicine: the post-Covid future