KLear Medical Solutions

Telemedicine is growing in popularity for many Americans as providers aim to address clinician shortages, improve appointment efficiency and reach more patients.

Telemedicine use might look like when COVID-19 moves into its endemic phase. Regarding telemedicine, the researchers said, “the new-car mystique of virtual experiences may seem like ol’ reliable.”

Older Americans weren’t the only demographic group to show an increase in telemedicine use. In 2022, 73% of rural respondents said they have used telemedicine, a 13% increase from 2021. Meanwhile, 50% of uninsured respondents said in 2022 they had used telemedicine, a 13% jump from 2021.

Use of wearable devices climbed among respondents with 62% of respondents with “excellent” health owning a wearable compared with 23% of respondents with “very poor” health.

Key uses for telemedicine included prescription refills and care for minor ailments. Of the respondents, 61% favored telemedicine for prescription refills and 51% preferred the technology for minor illness care. Given these preferences, Amazon’s new $5-per-month RxPass subscription service could disrupt the consumer health market.

“Multiple factors contribute to non-video telemedicine use, including the continued lag in national broadband coverage,” the researchers wrote. “Another likely contributor is the growing supply of non-video appointment offerings, bolstered by provider organizations.”

Of the 20% of respondents showing a preference for in-person visits, 44% said they simply desire to address health matters in person. Many consumers also distrust health data sharing and prefer to confide in their providers for health information instead. In 2022, 77% of respondents trusted doctors/clinicians compared with 28% of digital health apps, 16% for websites and 11% for social media groups.

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Stigma in the health professions is as much of a problem as it is everywhere else. People talk about the way someone’s acting as being “behavioral,” as like a standalone term. And it means nothing, all behavior’s behavioral, it’s ridiculous. You may as well say breathing is respiratory, you know. You can’t differentiate. But it’s become this term and what we mean is, or what people mean who use it is, this person’s acting out, they’re doing this on purpose.

We, as a profession, as a culture, often view psychosis with a bit more sympathy, because we know that people who are psychotic have effectively lost touch with reality. But at the other end you have people who perhaps have a personality disorder diagnosis. And there’s a tendency to write off the way they’re behaving because they can “help it.