Trends In Tele-Health And Tele-Therapy

Tele-health has existed in one form or another for decades. But it was not until COVID-19 hit that online healthcare gained serious traction. Comparing the last week of March of 2020 to the same week of the previous year, telehealth visits in the U.S increased 154%.

Some circumstances will always require patients to seek in-person care. But tele-health offers patients greater flexibility when it comes to meeting many of their healthcare needs. Those who live in rural locations, elderly patients who cannot drive, and immunocompromised individuals benefit the most from online healthcare.

Exciting trends in tele-health, as well as trends in tele-therapy continue to emerge. The kind of care people can now seek from the comfort of their own home may surprise you.

Internet of Things

The global Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) market is expected to grow by more than 1,000% between 2019 and 2029 — from $24.4 to $285.5 billion.

Examples of IoMT devices include wearables, like fitness bands and patches, and objects like smart beds. These gadgets collect data on a person's health, like pulse rate, temperature, and blood oxygen levels. They enable clinicians to monitor patients without in-person meetings.

Hundreds of hardware startups cropped up over the last 10 years to stake their claim in this new frontier of healthcare. Edinburgh-based Current Health offers an armband that tracks your vital signs. An Israeli company, Biobeat, developed its own IoMT-enabled blood pressure and heart-rate monitor. Seattle-based Bardy Diagnostics makes remote monitoring patches to track heart health.

Tele-health software companies like California-based Carium display data provided by such IoMT devices in a user-friendly interface. They also facilitate communication between patients and providers.

"Being able to seamlessly tap into devices that individuals will use in their daily lives that can also automatically transmit or collect data means that new insights will be obtained that can inform care decisions," said Matt Fisher, general counsel at Carium.

"If trends or issues can be spotted earlier, it may be possible to drive better overall health and wellbeing," he added.

For patients that require frequent attention, such as those with chronic diseases, the number of times they need to see their doctor in person can be reduced with tele-health.

Emergency Medical Services

Emergency medical services (EMS) agencies — which send ambulances when you call 911 — also benefitted from recent trends in tele-health during COVID-19.

"You had a perfect storm where the call load almost doubled and you lost one fourth of your workforce," said Dr. Eckstein, CEO of the EMS platform Tele911, which was founded in 2020.

Dr. Eckstein has served as the medical director of the Los Angeles Fire Department since 1996 and has 35 years of experience in emergency medicine. He and his partners sought to improve EMS operations after observing major inefficiencies in the system over the years.

"[EMS] hasn't evolved since its inception over 50 years ago and it's become very unsustainable," he said.

During the pandemic, the Los Angeles EMS system "was literally crashing during the emergency," with some paramedics waiting to get patients from the parking lot into hospitals for up to eight hours.

"It really underscored the fact that the system was very fragile, and the need to leverage innovation and technology to fundamentally change it for the better right now," he said.

Tele911 allows paramedics to triage patients in their homes to determine whether or not they actually need to be transported to the hospital. Usually, they do not. But until tele-health, paramedics were often unable to make this determination on the scene.

"The overwhelming majority of EMS calls are not critically ill or injured people," Dr. Eckstein said. "By integrating telemedicine into EMS, we bring a board certified emergency physician to the bedside virtually. Then, the emergency physician can determine very quickly if the patient needs to be transported in the first place, or if they can be treated at home."

The latest trends in tele-health change the game for EMS agencies. Tele-health saves agencies time and money while helping more patients get the help they need faster.

Tele-therapy

Trends in tele-therapy have also emerged. Before the pandemic, 63.6% of respondents to an American Psychiatric Association survey reported they did not use tele-therapy at all. After COVID-19 hit, only 1.9% of respondents did not use tele-therapy.

"So many have believed providing care outside of the standard office meeting was impossible. However, now clinicians and clients have experienced so much more flexibility for getting mental health care," said Carley Trillow, an Ohio-based trauma and addiction therapist. "Most of the therapists I collaborate with are wanting to stay in telehealth only."

During the pandemic, many governors allowed therapists practicing in one state to treat a patient in another. Private insurers, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, also loosened restrictions on coverage for online therapy.

But will these trends in tele-therapy remain post-pandemic? Some major insurers have already started to remove certain aspects of their coverage of telehealth services.

"Clients are having to discontinue attending therapy when the pandemic is still alive and it's posing a risk to individuals across the country — and likely the globe." Trillow said.

The Future of Tele-Health

The potential of tele-health is exciting, but there are some barriers preventing its growth. Complications with insurance coverage and government regulations have slowed its momentum.

"It wasn't uncommon less than five years ago for providers and patients alike to experience issues when filing claims for tele-health procedures," said Scott Spivack, marketing director of United Medical Credit, a healthcare financing company based in Irvine. "That was especially true for Medicare patients, who faced some of the strictest tele-health coverage rules."

There remains a lack of consensus as to whether or not insurance should cover online healthcare visits. The complex issue of state licensure laws, which we have already seen begin to limit trends in tele-therapy, also poses a problem. However, experts are hopeful that these measures could become permanent.

"I wouldn't be surprised if within the next 5-10 years, all states standardized some sort of tele-health-empowering legislation," Spivack said. "More than half of states currently have such legislation in the books, but I suspect we'll only see those numbers grow."