A survey of 800 U.S. physicians reveals that physician adoption of telehealth has increased significantly, though for most specialties, barriers to adoption do still exist.
The survey, from telehealth company American Well, found that physician telehealth adoption is at an inflection point. This shift in readiness is driven by physicians' desire to improve patient access to care, improve patient outcomes and attract and retain patients. Coupled with a more promising reimbursement landscape and health systems' vision to expand telehealth use, this shift in provider expectations around telehealth is set to fuel significant growth in the sector, according to the researchers.
Specifically, a total of 22 percent of physicians said they have used telehealth to see patients, up 340 percent from 2015 when only 5 percent of physicians reported having ever used telehealth. Moreover, a total of 69 percent of physicians said they would be willing to use telehealth, up 12 percentage points, from 57 percent in 2015.
Newer physicians (aged 25 to 34) said they were somewhat less willing to use telehealth compared to other young physicians (aged 35 to 44), possibly because these physicians are still learning their craft and thus less confident about new technology, the researchers speculated.
What’s more, specialists— especially those who are burnt out—said they do want to use telehealth. The top specialties willing to practice via telehealth include: urology, emergency medicine, infectious disease, psychiatry, pediatrics, oncology and neurology.
However, barriers to adoption still exist, according to the survey’s results. For most specialties, there is a significant gap between willingness to use telehealth and actual telehealth usage. Burnt out specialists such as urologists, emergency medicine providers and infectious disease physicians are the most willing to use telehealth, but they're among the least likely to have used it. Physician barriers to telehealth include: uncertainty around reimbursement, questions about clinical appropriateness, lack of physician buy-in, poor leadership support. Each of these areas has seen significant positive progress since 2015.
In the end, the researchers believe that physician adoption of telehealth is at an inflection point. While 22 percent of doctors report using telehealth today, over half of those who are not using telehealth said they are either very likely or likely to start using telehealth within 3 years. This would bring the total percent of physicians using telehealth to roughly 61 percent by 2022 – more than half a million doctors in all.
And, those physicians who are already using telehealth expect to use it more in the future. Among doctors who have tried video visits already, the percentage who use telemedicine 2 times a week or more now is 15 percent, but is expected to grow to 50 percent by 2022.
"Physicians are adopting telehealth much faster than they adopted EHRs at a similar stage of market development,” Sylvia Romm, M.D., vice president of clinical transformation at American Well, said in a statement. "Physicians' increased willingness to see patients over video, in addition to the increasing physician shortage, high burnout rates and a more favorable reimbursement landscape, signals a boom in virtual visits over the next several years. It's exciting to be a part of such a significant movement."
