The Rise of Virtual Care: How to Embed Trust in Technologies

Webinar Summary: On-Demand Session

The COVID-19 pandemic has set the stage for the importance of virtual care and has sparked a growth in its use to deliver care. In the UK, the NHS has leveraged remote consultations to help reduce the risk of infection for staff and patients.

Matt Hancock recently highlighted that “we have moved to a principle of digital first in primary care and with outpatients, unless there are clinical or practical reasons, all consultations should be done by telemedicine”.

Video consultations have been rolled out in England, Scotland and Wales. The NHS is also exploring other enablers for remote working. According to a recent analysis and research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, titled “Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the Healthcare industry”, while the COVID-19 has had disruptive effect on our lives, it has also acted as a catalyst in bringing accelerated growth of virtual technologies in healthcare.

The report highlights an increased demand for cloud platforms, an unprecedented demand for telehealth and remote monitoring solutions, improved data and security platforms in the digital health industry, more practical applications of AI and robotics, with advancements such as interactive virtual assistants enabling more opportunities for care.

These present huge opportunities to the healthcare industry as well as challenges which will need to be addressed to ensure patient trust and safety to encourage increased adoption and use.