Health management via telemedicine: Learning from the COVID-19 experience

At the onset of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, telemedicine was rapidly implemented to protect patients and healthcare providers from infection. It is unlikely that care delivery will fully return to the pre-COVID form. Telemedicine offers many opportunities to improve care efficiency, accessibility, and patient outcomes, but many challenges exist related to technology interoperability, the digital divide, and usability. We propose that telemedicine evolve to support continuity of care throughout the patient journey, including multi-disciplinary care teams and the seamless integration of data into the clinical workflow to support a learning healthcare system. Importantly, evidence is needed to support this paradigm shift in care delivery to ensure the quality and efficacy of care delivered via telemedicine. Here, we highlight gaps and opportunities that need to be addressed by the biomedical informatics community to move forward with safe and effective healthcare delivery via telemedicine.

Automated summary

Telemedicine was rapidly implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect patients and healthcare providers. While it offers many opportunities, challenges related to technology interoperability, the digital divide, and usability still exist. Evidence is needed to support the paradigm shift in care delivery via telemedicine to ensure quality and efficacy.