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.

Consumer opinion of telemedicine wanes

Moreover, telemedicine users in the US are expected to make up 38.9% of the US population by 2025—up from 29.3% in 2021, according to our forecast. Hospitals and health systems are still marching forward with their telehealth expansion plans, per a recent survey by the Center for Connected Medicine and KLAS Research.

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:.

Telehealth needs to look beyond visits to stay competitive: Amwell unveiled its Q2 earnings, revealing lower year-over-year revenues and a projected drop in telehealth visits—we explore why telehealth vendors need to move beyond virtual visits and evolve to incorporate other digital health solutions in their product suites.

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.

Healthcare providers such as the Texas A&M Health Science Center partnered with telemedicine kiosk company OnMed to launch a virtual care station for patients in rural Texas, for example. Texas A&M’s telemedicine station is strategically placed in a centralized, tech-enabled location, helping to extend access to those who live within a reasonable radius of the hub.

MDLive unveiled new data showing it captured patients who were otherwise forgoing primary care. We unpack why virtual primary care alone is not enough to sustain consumers in the post-pandemic future.

On today's episode, we discuss how many Americans have adopted telehealth, how people are using it, and what's both driving it forward and holding it back. We then talk about the popularity of buy now, pay later services, why some retailers are now starting to expand their brick and mortar presence, and what adding prescription discounts might do for Amazon and Walmart's membership programs. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst Lisa Phillips and director of forecasting at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu.

The opportunity for digital health vendors: Once Dollar General does kick its healthcare plans into high gear, it’ll be looking out for digital health partners to actualize its goals of making telemedicine and digital pharmacy available to its customers.

Just 1% of telemedicine services used by US adults were related to physical therapy, according to Civic Science’s February 2021 study. For context, primary care (33%), mental health (6%), and dermatology (2%) all have higher telehealth usage rates.

Around two-thirds (65.8%) of healthcare executives say increasing telemedicine and tech capabilities are top priorities at their organization, per HFMA’s March 2021 Outlook Survey—and many are already doing so via M&A deals. But consumers end up with the short end of the stick as provider entities become bigger, all-encompassing entities: they can end up with higher costs.