Should telehealth be here to stay? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Telehealth, where physician and patient can meet remotely via telephone or video, was utilized by millions when the Covid pandemic was at its height. Now emergency measures to facilitate this are or are about to be expired, and Brian Hasselfeld, director of telemedicine at Johns Hopkins, says perhaps these measures or some like them should be made permanent. 

Hasselfeld: Because of all the reasons we feel telemedicine is good for the patient, convenient, less time to travel, paying for parking, finding mass transit, time away from work, time away from child care. Sometimes, I mean clinically, it’s better seeing a patient in their home environment, can’t forget your medications anymore because they’re right down the hallway. Looking at impairment of activities of daily living instead of just hearing about them. There are many actual benefits in addition to being really patient centered.  :29

Hasselfeld says both federal and state authorities will have to weigh in on regulations to allow easily accessible telemedicine services to continue. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.