Rock Well being and the Stanford Middle of Digital Well being proceed to trace the tendencies and development of telemedicine. We final coated the collaboration’s Digital Well being Shopper Adoption Survey 2020. The 2020 survey of seven,980 U.S. adults was based mostly on contacts throughout September and early October 2020. The 2020 survey reported 43% of respondents had skilled stay video telemedicine, a rise of 11% from 2019’s research. Additionally in 2020, 43% of the surveyed contacts had expertise with wearables and digital trackers, up from 33% within the earlier 12 months. The Rock Well being Digital Well being Shopper Adoption 2021 signifies continued telemedicine development in addition to notable adjustments in digital well being choices and use.
Rock Well being surveyed 7,980 adults in the course of the summer season and early fall of 2021. In a information launch in regards to the newest survey, the researchers stress that telemedicine is greater than stay cellphone and video calls. In line with Rock Well being, “We outline telemedicine as tech-enabled modalities that allow customers to obtain medical care or recommendation remotely from clinicians. Telemedicine will be synchronous (a stay video go to or cellphone name) or asynchronous (exchanging a textual content, electronic mail, or image with a clinician).” This explicitly broadened definition units a foundation for viewing the reported adjustments in shopper adoption.
Primarily based on the identical quantity (7,980) of survey respondents in 2021 as in 2020, 51% of customers contacted stated that they had beforehand used stay video telemedicine, up 8% from 2020. The Rock Well being survey additionally breaks out different types of telemedicine, as outlined above, together with stay cellphone calls, well being app or web site use, electronic mail, textual content messaging, plus other-than-live photos and video content material. Shoppers reported will increase in all types of telemedicine in 2021 in comparison with 2020 besides stay cellphone calls. Reside video was essentially the most broadly used telemedicine modality.
The survey additionally discovered that 43% of customers surveyed reported larger satisfaction with stay video telemedicine in comparison with prior in-person care. This quantity is a stunning drop from 53% reporting larger satisfaction in 2020. Fox Well being hypothesizes that as telemedicine choices broaden, customers extra usually contemplate telemedicine as a substitute care as an alternative of a substitute for in-person care. In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic locked down many areas, Rock Well being means that gratitude for care in any type from a famously over-stressed healthcare system might have been a significant factor in reported satisfaction. Now that in-person care prospects have largely returned, customers are extra vital of something aside from face-to-face companies.
Rock Well being additionally reported on customers’ most well-liked methodology of medical care based mostly on particular care wants. They discovered, for instance, that 41% of respondents most well-liked stay video telemedicine for remedy for colds or flu, however solely 12% most favored telemedicine for bodily remedy. Notably, customers most well-liked stay care in a medical skilled’s workplace for bodily remedy, annual checkups, and psychological well being care, however not for flu or chilly or prescription refills.
As in earlier surveys, Rock Well being discovered that folks with larger incomes, better training, and youthful ages have been extra seemingly to make use of telemedicine than these with decrease incomes, much less training, and extra years.
Trying ahead, the Digital Well being Shopper Adoption Survey 2020 factors to new assumptions about telemedicine. The researchers state that telemedicine will proceed to be seen as a software, not as a brand new enterprise mannequin. Sufferers already see telemedicine as virtual-first care, not a substitute for care. Telemedicine’s position will more and more deal with focused care wants and never be an answer for one-size-fits-all for basic medical care.
