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The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Telemedicine

image of The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Telemedicine

The use of telemedicine was quite limited in most OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, held back by regulatory barriers and hesitancy from patients and providers. In early 2020, as COVID-19 massively disrupted in-person care, governments moved quickly to promote the use of telemedicine. The number of teleconsultations skyrocketed, playing a vital role in maintaining access to care, but only partly offsetting reductions in in-person care. This report provides an overview of the use of telemedicine in OECD countries, describing how governments scaled up remote care during the pandemic and exploring the impact that this massive shift to remote care has had on health care system performance. Telemedicine may be here to stay, but questions remain concerning how to regulate its use, how to pay for it, how to integrate it with in-person care, and how to make sure that it constitutes good value for money for all. This report puts forth priorities for policy makers to inform the discussion and to promote the best use of remote care services in the future.

English

Resumé

Au début de 2020, alors que les pays étaient aux prises avec l'énorme incertitude entourant la propagation du coronavirus du syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère 2 (SRAS-CoV-2) et de la maladie qu'il provoque, la COVID-19, la vie normale s'est arrêtée. Alors que les gouvernements se concentraient sur la prévention et le traitement de la COVID-19, et que les gens modifiaient radicalement leurs comportements pour limiter l'infection, de nombreux services de santé en personne ont été reportés ou tout simplement annulés, entraînant des perturbations massives dans la prestation des services de santé essentiels, avec des conséquences qui persistent aujourd'hui.

French Also available in: English

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