Telemedicine refers to providing health services using digital devices like phones and computers, allowing patients to get medical advice and care from home. While challenges like security and training exist, telemedicine has grown rapidly since 2010 and surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a safe alternative to in-person care. The pandemic drove widespread adoption of telemedicine and highlighted its benefits of preserving equipment, protecting healthcare workers, and monitoring patients remotely. As awareness and need have increased, telemedicine appears poised to continue playing an important role in healthcare going forward.

1. The Growth of Telemedicine in the 21st
Century
Peter Killcommons

2. Introduction
Telemedicine refers to the innovative means of distributing health-related services
using digital devices such as phones and computers. As a result, patients could
easily get medical advice, reminders, monitoring, education, etc., from the comfort
of their homes. This technology also allows healthcare providers to evaluate,
diagnose, and treat patients without needing an in-clinic session. Instead, patients
can use medical apps or call a telemedicine number usually provided by the office
of a primary care physician.

3. The development of telemedicine is deeply rooted in the growth of technology
and society. Humans have long pursued relaying messages via optical telegraphy,
telescope, and wireless transmission. The early forms of telemedicine performed
with phones and radio have been generally supplemented with video telephony
and advanced diagnostic methods and additional with telemedical devices. The
21st century has, however, seen telemedicine take a transformative role in
healthcare through the emergence of high-speed portable internet devices.

4. Spurred by the 21st-century digital shift, virtual health sessions have become a
vastly popular and ideal alternative to traditional in-clinic care. In its years of
inception, unfamiliarity with the technology required to perform telemedicine
services contributed heavily to its lack of widespread use and slow growth
generally.

5. Cyber security has been a challenge for patients and healthcare providers using
telemedicine platforms as the technology involves electronically transmitting
patient data, making them susceptible to hackers and other security breaches.
Healthcare organizations remain a big target for online criminals. There is also
the issue of inadequate technical training and equipment for practitioners in this
field.

6. Despite these challenges, telemedicine in medical practice has grown rapidly
from 35 percent in 2010 to 76 percent in 2017. In a 2020 survey, 43 percent of
American adults said they use telemedicine through a live video call with their
healthcare provider. This was a significant rise from preceding years as just
seven percent reported using telemedicine in 2015.

7. Since the advent of telemedicine, it has never experienced the level of surge it
has had since 2020 caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. The coronavirus
pandemic has driven telemedicine in all areas of healthcare as healthcare
institutions around the world adopted both in-clinic and out-clinic services to
utilize the telemedicine service properly. In the United States, the implementation
of telemedicine services can be partly attributed to the broadening of insurance
coverage and the relaxation of technology conditions for violating the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

8. Telemedicine has also helped preserve personal protective equipment during a
worldwide scarcity, protected healthcare workers from being infected, and
allowed monitoring patients with chronic conditions without putting them at risk
by attending medical settings. As a result, it has been given much more attention
than it ever received in years before the pandemic.

9. With the rise in its awareness among patients, healthcare providers,
governments, and people worldwide, combined with how essential it has become
in healthcare since the pandemic, it is clear that telemedicine has come to stay.
Moreover, the approach will likely continue to be used in 2022 and beyond.