What Is Telemedicine? Virtual Health Startups See Surge In Demand Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Amid the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak, telemedicine startups in the United States saw a sharp rise in demand after President Donald Trump touted the virtual health set up during the emergency declaration Friday.

Describing telemedicine as "a fairly new and incredible thing that's happened in the not-so-distant past,” Trump said in his remarks that “what they've done with telehealth is incredible.” He added that his government will waive certain federal rules in order to increase the number of doctors participating in telemedicine programs and make it easier for them to provide their services.

Telemedicine refers to the exchange of medical information, including asking questions to assess the patient’s symptoms, using electronic communication. Since it is done through video chats, the patient need not visit the doctor at the clinic and hence can avoid the risk of getting exposed to other people. In case the patient is suspected of having coronavirus, the doctor can notify the health department, schedule the person for testing and quarantine the patient.

Doctors believe this virtual set up can help avoid the spread of disease.

Dr. Lilia Pedrego, family medicine physician at Telehealth, said, "Our younger generation may not be afraid to be out there and keep their daily routine going, and that's fine. But if you start to have symptoms, it's no longer just about us. It's also about our elderly population. We don't want to be out there spreading something that may or may not be contagious.”

Meanwhile, several startups including 98point6, Amwell and Ro have witnessed significant growth in the number of virtual visits related to coronavirus. These startups have introduced COVID-19 screening tools. Amwell, which witnessed a 40% increase in virtual visits in recent days, had started staffing up because of a sudden increase in demand.

98point6, which began developing the tools in January, has also signed new clients.

“I'm an emergency physician with a background in preparedness, so certainly I had on my mind what the potential surge impact could be to the business," said Bradley Younggren, chief medical officer at 98point6.