Remote Care is Here to Stay: How to Overcome the Remaining Obstacles and Build Better Healthcare for All

Remote healthcare was on the upswing before Covid-19 changed our world for example, look at the advent of same-day surgery with home recovery. There's a good reason: Moving healthcare, usually handled at a doctor's office or even the hospital, to a patient’s home leads to better monitoring and patient compliance, reduces costs and frees up healthcare facilities for critical needs. Moreover, with the enormous cost burden on both patients and healthcare facilities and the convenience driven by the capability in today's connected consumer technologies remote healthcare may be becoming the preferred way to deliver healthcare in the 21st century for both patients and providers.

Remote healthcare is also seen as better for tracking patients' health in their natural environment and offers more robust and meaningful data. For example, home monitoring of blood pressure and glucose leads to a better snapshot of health and, in turn, recommendations for lifestyle changes or medication tweaks. In addition, moving standard medical appointments to Zoom gives patients more flexibility and doctors more time to read up on a patient and to prepare for a higher value and more efficient interaction. In short, not only is remote patient monitoring more effective financially and medically, it provides a better total patient experience.