Staying Power? Digital Health’s Potential in 2021

Where the role of telehealth lands in the long term – whether as a triaging tool to reduce ER visits or a follow-up tool hand-in-hand with remote patient monitoring – is still to be seen. Debate over how to reconcile telehealth services, from substitutes for in-person consults to supplemental virtual communication, with fee-for-service payment models, will continue.

As providers experiment with best practices to permanently integrate telehealth services in their care delivery systems, the results of multiple survey studies polling thousands of patients are clear: patient experience with telehealth during 2020 was positive overall.

As patients experimented with a range of digital health technologies during the pandemic and are tracking their health with the aid of apps, the potential to increase the diversity of patient perspectives and reduce dataset bias is more promising than ever.