The Benefits of Telemedicine

“Telemedicine is about expanding services to the populations that we serve…going back to the days of home visits in a virtual way.”

This was the topic of discussion at this afternoon’s session presented by Seth Martin, MD, MHS, who is a preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. 

He began by discussing a scientific statement from the American Society for Preventive Cardiology in which he participated, which highlighted the use of telehealth for the prevention of delay of care.

He next talked about a series of challenges to employing telemedicine, including reimbursement models, licensure restrictions, state legislation differences, broadband coverage, and privacy concerns. After jumping from 0% to 90% from March to April 2020, the percentage of cardiology visits at Johns Hopkins Cardiology has now settled at around 60%, he explained.

“In terms of ‘will telemedicine be here to stay?’ it seems like that is the case, and that there will be a happy combination that will server our patients,” he said.

Next, he discussed lessons learned over time after beginning to employ telemedicine, including that patients both young and old can do telehealth visits, they can be conducted from home or the hospital, they can include a patient’s family or residents and fellows, and technology challenges are common.

“The future of care is outside of the hospital…and telemedicine is really a key piece of this,” he said.

Digital Divide

Smartphones can help to bridge this divide but having a smartphone does not mean that you have internet access, with many black and Hispanic patients lacking internet access compared with white patients (Figure 1). Further, among older patients, many are unready to access telemedicine for a number of reasons, including having not used electronic communication in more than a month. This lack of comfort, he explained, can lead to barriers to treatment.

Enhancing Telemedicine: Wearables

“If we have the basics down, how do we enhance the basics?”

It is estimated that smartwatches will be owned by 121.1 million people by 2022. These devices can be used to measure heart rate, arrhythmia, blood pressure, stress, respiratory rate, temperature, and more. These devices can help to provide an enhanced experience for engaging patients in their healthcare, he said.

He went on to discuss his involvement with the development of the Corrie app, which gives patients daily care plans, helps to coordinate care by sharing data with care teams, and uses sensors including FDA-approved sensors, that allows patients to engage more in their own cardiovascular health.

Takeaways

He concluded by saying that telemedicine has gone from something that seemed like a good plan for the future to a new normal for healthcare.

“We must continue to aggressively invest in technology to increase access, ease of use, and its effectiveness,” he said.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Martin S. The Benefits of Telemedicine Today and Going Forward. Talk presented at: Practical Updates in Primary Care 2020 Virtual Series; November 6-7, 2020; virtual.