Virtual Care: The Future for Telehealth

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought telehealth into the limelight. Telehealth is not a new word but since the pandemic, for many day-to-day users of the healthcare system, this term has become a household term. For IT enthusiasts, it is refreshing to see the uptake in telehealth. In most cases the uptake in telehealth came from the forced necessity of minimizing the spread of the virus. The positive outcomes have taken healthcare by surprise. It is not surprising then to see healthcare service providers transitioning to telehealth at an exponential rate. However, the upcoming COVID-19 normal state will demand more than the transitioning of ‘brick and mortar’ clinical practices to video or tele consult, making telehealth a natural predecessor of virtual care. This is a position paper presenting the current state of telehealth by outlining its benefits, limitations, looking beyond telehealth to address some of the recurring healthcare pain points and potential solutions to move towards patient-centered care via the adoption of virtual care.