If you read standard business publications like Fast Company, this month you’ll probably be treated to a takeout on how the telehealth bubble has burst.
In the Fast Company story, the author argues that the whole online healthcare thing is already proving to be overplayed. “While telehealth remains an important tool for doctors, it no longer seems likely…that the vast majority of healthcare is going to happen online,” writes contributor Ruth Reader.
Her evidence for this includes that while funding for healthcare startups is growing exponentially, the money is no longer flowing directly into telehealth at the same pace. She notes (and I agree with her to this extent) that investors aren’t sure where telehealth will fit into the long-term healthcare landscape.
However, where she and I part company is the notion that the slowdown in dollars aimed directly at telehealth-specific projects is a sign of the medium showing its limitations. In fact, I’d suggest that the opposite is true — that far from becoming less relevant, telehealth is becoming an integral part of how providers think about the future of their tech infrastructure.
To be sure, I am as aware as anyone that the current generation of telehealth technologies has its limitations. As I noted in a previous story, to date few telehealth platforms have added much to their core capabilities, and providers haven’t done much to integrate technology into their overall workflow either.
I admit that if I had capital to invest I probably wouldn’t sink it in today’s generation of telehealth tools, as the ones I’m aware of don’t seem to be very forward-looking. (Telehealth vendors: If I’ve missed something new and exciting please let me know at anne@ziegerhealthcare.com — I’m interested.) That being said, to my mind there is no question that telehealth has a future. In fact, I’d argue that it’s going to be central — that telehealth will have an impact on the design of most if not all next-gen healthcare delivery models.
While this was not the case when digital health first began to emerge, today virtually any new digital innovation in healthcare technology will include features and functions that integrate the consumer side into the caregiving process. At one point digital healthcare was centered largely around individual devices, today it makes far more sense to leverage telehealth alongside of the brick-and-mortar care infrastructure.
In other words, by no means are we looking at a bursting telehealth bubble, no matter what stock prices of companies like Teladoc might suggest otherwise. We are certainly going to see telehealth providers of this generation rethink and retrench, as long-term telehealth approaches will differ from models arising from the frenzy created by COVID. During this period, telehealth probably won’t get coverage the way it did during the peak of the pandemic, as something that just works isn’t much of a news story.
However, I for one believe that the notion of telehealth is anything but passe. In fact, soon there will be no more need to write about telehealth as a concept, as it will simply be subsumed into the core channels of healthcare delivery. I look forward to doing more than enjoying being able to get care in my pajamas and beginning to benefit from innovative telehealth options which are already waiting in the wings.
