Brian Wallace, Founder & President, NowSourcing

Telehealth and telemedicine are the future of healthcare.  In 2019, more than 75% of the United States-based hospitals used video to connect with their patients.  Telemedicine offers remote clinical services.  It can be used to diagnose conditions, screen symptoms, provide mental health services, offer low-risk urgent care, support nursing home staff, and deliver specialist consultations.  Telehealth, on the other hand, offers remote non-clinical services.  It is much broader, with tasks like fulfilling medication, chronic condition support, physical and occupational services, facilitating provider training, administrative meetings, and continuing healthcare education. 

Telemedicine is booming thanks to its many formats.  Telehealth is less than 100 years old but is maturing at an unbelievable speed.  In the first quarter of 2020 alone, there were 1,629,000 telehealth visits.  18% of the United States GDP is healthcare-related.  Telehealth increases patient satisfaction and retention by 81.5%, and virtual healthcare has a compound annual growth rate of 4.8%.  This success can be attributed to the different types of telehealth platforms.  These include video calls, mobile health, texting services, emails, phone calls, remote patient monitoring, and various types of software such as Nurx or BetterHelp.

Telehealth has continued to thrive even through opposing barriers.  41% of patients have limited access to the internet, but this is currently being solved with the federal broadband initiatives.  While concerns over misdiagnoses have arisen, studies show no significant difference between in-person and telehealth diagnoses.  Recent legislation is now allowing telehealth practitioners to reach across state lines, removing licensing barriers.  66% of adults were concerned about the use of their private medical information but also believe privacy should not keep them from using telehealth.  Consumers are growing more comfortable with private records in the cloud.  Even public skepticism has gone down, and the majority of studies now show that patients prefer telehealth over in-person visits.

The various programs available are helping those in need.  Healthcare practitioners can help control and diagnose low-incidence diseases.  Programs that serve high-risk populations or rural locations and telehealth initiatives that increase healthcare cost parity are two ways that healthcare has become more accessible through telehealth.  Additionally, patients save up to 3 hours, which is equal to around 100 driven miles.  82% of Americans said that telehealth made it easier to get the care they need.  It’s more convenient because it doesn’t require time off from work to commute, less costly, and many feel less anxiety when seeing a doctor remotely.  The future of medicine is just a few taps away. 

About the Author: Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of