Shayna Weinstein

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many people were forced to transition from traditional in-person healthcare to virtual appointments for all their medical needs. When the intensity of the pandemic dissipated, many people returned to in-person visits. Although in-person visits are sometimes necessary, there are many times when they aren’t. There are many benefits to primarily seeing medical providers virtually still. Telemedicine is the remote delivery of medical services. 

Telehealth is more efficient when there is a shortage of doctors.

 Telemedicine is a great way to deal with medical professional shortages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, states that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was viewed as an efficient, cost-effective way to help the shortage of healthcare providers. This is still an issue during 2024: the Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC, completed a study in March 2024 called The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2021 to 2036. This study stresses the importance of adjusting medical delivery based on the ever-changing rate of current and projected medical physicians in order to give quality medical care to the public effectively. This study also discusses the long-term effects that COVID-19 had on current and future medicine. The pandemic has highlighted the pre-existing issues in healthcare access. Physician demand is projected to continue to grow faster, leading to a total projected shortage of between 13,500 and 86,000 physicians by 2036. Just like the shortage of physicians during the pandemic, there is an expected increase in shortage, meaning there might be even more of a need for telemedicine. Telemedicine allows fewer doctors to see more patients since it is easier and takes less time and effort to see each patient without lessening the quality of care. 

Chronic disease management

Another benefit of telemedicine is how it creates more manageable care for patients with chronic diseases. For example, telemedicine can make frequent screening of diabetes care more frequent since it is easier to attend virtual appointments frequently than it is to drive to an in-person clinic regularly. Many patients have reported satisfaction with managing their chronic diseases being easier virtually. 

Overall Satisfaction

In November 2020, there was an assessment of reviews of various telehealth services from 2010 to 2019. This demonstrated that telehealth can be equivalent or more clinically effective when compared to usual in-person care.

Mental Health Efficiency

Telehealth is also very beneficial in mental healthcare since it offers timely support for unpredictable mental health struggles. Therapists and psychiatrists can help mitigate and evaluate if mental health incidents need the patient to go to the emergency room. This can reduce emergency room hospital visits.