The growth of virtual health care is a positive outcome of the pandemic [column] | Local Voices

The tool was there, lying unused in many circumstances, at the bottom of the proverbial doctor’s bag.

Then, five years ago, the unthinkable happened — the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic — and the tool came out of the bag, got dusted off and was put to use more widely than ever before.

Since then, it’s been revolutionizing health care, expanding access to quality care while advancing health equity in underserved populations. Plus, it has enhanced patient satisfaction.

The tool is telemedicine, now more widely called virtual health care.

Soon, we believe, it will no longer be categorized as virtual health care but simply health care, part of the varied ways physicians and health care providers serve patients.

Not-new technology put to new uses

Telemedicine is not new.

An early adopter of the technology, the military used the telegraph to order medical supplies during the Civil War. The first reference to the term telemedicine in medical literature dates to 1950, according to a National Library of Medicine article published by the National Institutes of Health. The article describes the 1948 transmission by telephone of radiologic images from West Chester to Philadelphia.

The radio has been used since the 1920s to provide medical advice to shipboard clinics. Beginning in the 1960s, NASA used telemetry to monitor astronauts. And states such as Alaska have long used telemedicine to help patients in rural villages decide if they need to travel long distances to see a specialist.

Despite this history, virtual health care as we view it today was not used as much as it might have been by health care practitioners in their day-to-day operations, simply because it wasn’t necessary or, in some cases, practical.

COVID-19 changed that.

Since then, the uses of telemedicine have only continued to grow:

— Quality health care can now be more easily and quickly provided to populations in rural and urban areas, eliminating the need to travel far.

— Patients are experiencing significantly reduced wait times for care. Instead of traveling to a clinic for a child’s runny nose and waiting in two different patient areas to be seen by a practitioner for 10 or so minutes, families can schedule a visit and be seen at that time.

— Virtual intensive care services enable specially trained critical care nurses to remotely monitor the conditions of critically ill or injured patients via high-definition audio and visual equipment and provide regular check-ins. This enhances hospitals’ ability to review patient conditions continuously.

— Emergency medical services providers can incorporate a virtual health care component to their responses, potentially reducing unnecessary emergency room visits.

Other uses, other benefits

Mental health services benefit significantly from virtual health care. Patients who suddenly experience a mental health crisis should be seen as soon as possible. By streamlining intake processes, expanding access to providers and reducing the need for travel, virtual health care can help to avert crises and allow patients to resume their lives more quickly.

The use of artificial intelligence in providing predictive analytics may be one of the most significant uses of virtual health care. AI software can analyze more patient data at once than any human, reviewing historical and current patient information to alert providers about who is getting better and who is getting sicker. This allows for timely and appropriate interventions.

Virtual health care is covered by most major insurance providers, but patients should always check with their carriers to confirm coverage, particularly if the health care practitioner is out of state.

Telemedicine enables patients to see more in-network providers, reducing overall costs. Health plan providers are incorporating patient data into typical treatment plans, providing faster or immediate authorization for next steps in care. And audio equipment that transcribes conversations helps physicians speak directly with patients rather than review a computer screen, which research shows significantly improves patient satisfaction.

Occasionally, a virtual health care session may require hands-on assistance at the patient’s end with aspects of a physical examination, including the use of a digital stethoscope or otoscope (a tool used to assess the condition of the ear canal and eardrum). But that’s an issue that health care practitioners and patients can figure out together.

All of this is just the beginning of a continuing revolution in health care. We’re certainly glad telemedicine is now “out of the bag.”

Christopher LaCoe is vice president of virtual health at Penn State Health and a registered nurse. Dr. Timothy Law is chief medical officer and vice president of integrative care delivery at Highmark.