Telemedicine is not the way most US adults prefer to access care. For only two healthcare needs—flu or cold treatment, and prescription refills—live video visits held an edge over in-office visits in 2021, and this margin was slim. US adults were more inclined to travel to their providers for mental health services, annual checkups, and physical therapy.

Everyone wants a slice of virtual primary care: 23andMe acquired telemedicine firm, and CrossFit raised our brows with its primary care launch—we unpack why companies across the gamut are in hot pursuit of virtual primary care.

Modern telemedicine has been around for nearly 50 years, getting its start in the late 1960s via closed-circuit television in projects launched by NASA, the US Department of Public Health, and other organizations.

Telemedicine users: Adults who use telemedicine at least once per year; telemedicine tools include interactive videoconferencing or videoconferencing using apps on a computer, tablet, smartphone, or mobile device. Key Points. Within four years, more than a quarter of the US population will regularly use remote patient monitoring.

As hospitals and health systems struggled with preserving supplies of PPE and curbing the spread of the coronavirus, many of them turned to telemedicine to virtually connect with patients in care facilities. Telehealth vendors and device-makers quickly jumped at the opportunity to help hospitals scale up their telemedicine services:.

Is telehealth’s ROI its post-pandemic saving grace? Cigna-MD Live’s latest study shows how the tech can cut on healthcare costs. We detail what’s behind telehealth’s power to slash costs for both providers and patients.

Digital ad spending in the US healthcare and pharmaceutical industry will grow by 14.2% to reach $9.53 billion in 2020. Growth is being fueled by ads related to COVID-19, including public service announcements, medical supplies and telemedicine.

Despite telemedicine having relatively low adoption rates in the past, interest in remote physician care has risen as the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing continue.

eMarketer principal analyst Victoria Petrock discusses how supercomputers and quantum computing can help us fight the coronavirus. She also talks about the adoption of telemedicine and how biometrics are being used to diagnose people and enforce quarantine orders.

Employers are responding by investing more in mental health resources:. 31% of employers with 50 or more employees expanded the means through which their employees could get mental health services (like through telemedicine), per KFF’s November 2021 Employer Health Benefits survey.

Telemedicine users in the US will reach 41.67 million in 2020, representing a growth of 98.8% from a year prior, according to our latest estimates.

Consumer opinion of telemedicine wanes

eMarketer principal analysts Nicole Perrin and Yory Wurmser check in on the ongoing privacy debate, looking at data privacy, device privacy and privacy legislation. They also discuss child privacy laws in the US, telemedicine adoption and an Apple Watch partnership.

In the US, Verizon has taken several steps to improve telemedicine with 5G. The US telecom acquired the videoconferencing platform BlueJeans for an estimated $400 million in May 2020.

The news: Most healthcare consumers were satisfied with telemedicine this year, but overall satisfaction levels dropped relative to 2020:. In 2020, about 53% of respondents indicated greater satisfaction with video visits compared with in-person care—but in 2021, their satisfaction levels dropped to 43%, according to Rock Health’s 2021 Consumer Adoption Report.