The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of our healthcare system, tested political and ethical boundaries, and necessitated quick implementation of policies and practices that in ordinary times would have been unimaginable or would have taken many years to implement. The significant uptake of telehealth across primary and secondary care for people with different health conditions, and all age groups is such an example.
How we learn from this knowledge and use this experience to drive a better, more efficient, safer and affordable healthcare system in the post COVID-19 era will be determined by healthcare providers and users, policy makers and insurers. Current transformation towards value-based health care, combined with the growing demand for more affordable and accessible health services and rapid technological advancement, provide an excellent environment for initiatives to assess the benefits and detriments of telehealth and to encourage the development of policy changes that will facilitate its wide implementation.
