Telemedicine trend to continue post-pandemic, doctors say
Written by Victoria Scialfa on March 31, 2021
Telemedicine trend to continue post-pandemic, doctors say
By Megan Frank
March 31, 2021
Explosive growth in the use of telemedicine during COVID-19 was one focus of a community discussion on healthcare hosted by 91.3 WLVR and PBS39 on March 30.
Dr. Stephen Klasko, president and chief executive officer of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health in Philadelphia says the group had 100,000 telemedicine visits just during the first two months of the pandemic.
He says that’s why Jefferson is working on other offerings for patients who like getting at-home care.
“We’re actually now looking at how people can do labs and diagnostics at home. Our most successful intellectual property this year was creating a wearable, that literally, people can go to sleep at night and measure their temperature, their respiratory rate, their heart rate, et cetera,” Klasko says.
And there’s more.
“We want to move to a continuous data [driven] at-home model. Your blood pressure is x, your EKG is y, and this is what you need to do for the next 12-months,” he says.
Still, Klasko says in-person visits will still be a part of post-pandemic health care.
Other topics covered in the forum included vaccines, data gathering and health care accessibility. You can find a link to the program on the PBS39 Facebook page.
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