Springing to popularity in the late 1960s using telephone lines, Telehealth is the provision and management of healthcare in a remote setting. Due to travel restrictions and the implementation of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a heavy reliance on Telehealth, including FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom, along with many other video communication software. The pandemic also raised awareness of patients living with co-morbidities who are not able to access face-to-face healthcare. This led many patients to search for digital health tools, such as apps, to help improve their health.
As well as managing healthcare in a remote setting, Telehealth can also be used to support effective data collection during clinical studies. Cristine Durán (Chief Digital Health Officer Global R&D, AstraZeneca) discussed the benefits of Telehealth in remote data collection, stating that up to 70% of data can be collected at home using clinically validated technology. Additional benefits included improving the patient experience, reducing cost, and promoting sustainability benefits due to the decrease in travel.
VitalSight™ by OMRON has also demonstrated the benefits of remote patient monitoring designed to engage patients in active condition management, encouraging behavior change and strengthening the patient–physician relationship.