Are you ready to skip the doctor’s office for the comfort of your own home?
Rocket Doctor is betting you are.
After the global pandemic thrust patients into telehealth, early surveys show the gamble is likely paying off. In many areas of medicine, virtual care models are now continuing to increase in use, even as clinics and hospitals reopen to the public. One key demographic driving this shift? People under age 29.
Having grown up with touchscreens at their fingertips, GenZ adults are experts when it comes to virtual applications. They far surpass their senior counterparts in comfort with digital documentation, and their general preference for digital services over face-to-face interactions is likely to drive growth in telehealth for decades. From mental health check-ins, to post-op physical therapy and critical brain device interventions, the potential benefits of going virtual are staggering.
This is where Rocket Doctor — and other companies such as TytoCare — see a market ripe for the picking. With medical assistants and clinical tools now unable to reach patients, a whole new approach to doctor’s visits is required. For example, what good is a common stethoscope if it can’t reach the patient’s chest or the doctor’s ears?
Enter digital technology.
Your next-generation telemedicine experience will likely begin with chatbots and artificial intelligence to help walk you through a digital intake process. Next, home kits filled with anything from bluetooth stethoscopes, electrocardiograms, oxygen saturation probes, guided cameras and more will help you conduct a step-by-step medical exam tailored to your needs. A fully secure and integrated platform will then readily input data into electronic medical records for evaluation.
Applications of such devices are vast. Whether they are designed to monitor our hearts, eyes, ears, throats, skin or other, digital home health markets are expected to soar over the next several years. Although some areas of medicine will remain in-person for the foreseeable future, a robust hybrid model of care is becoming more and more a reality.
To this end, both federal and state governments are evaluating policies that would extend provisions provided during the pandemic to expand virtual care. If passed, these measures will further open the door for telehealth growth and launch endless opportunities for digital health companies.
Saying goodbye to overflowing waiting rooms certainly won’t happen overnight. But it might not be too long before we stick out our tongues to say “ahhhh” into a handheld camera.