The Pitfalls of Telehealth — And How to Avoid Them

The telehealth revolution has transformed how doctors and patients interact. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, between 50% and 80% of medical visits were conducted via telemedicine, up from just 1% before it. There are many benefits to this trend — increased convenience, the potential to reduce clinical overhead costs, and even new insight into patients’ lives.

Certainly, there have been benefits. But clinicians and administrators are all too familiar with the technology’s unintended consequences. Some, such as work-life disruption and burnout, are directly relevant to the current challenge. Drawing on this experience with EHRs, we see four main strategies that could help head off the unintended impacts of telehealth.