COVID-19 catalyzed greater connectivity in the healthcare space. Take telehealth, for example. Stay-at-home orders quickly escalated telehealth from a promising innovation to an essential priority. In a matter of months, organizations had to quickly shift their IT budgets, scopes, and schedules to leverage their existing technologies and get providers and patients on board.
We’ve seen impressive statistics in increased adoption in this short timeframe. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated approximately 13,000 telehealth appointments per week before the pandemic and at least 10 million total, breaking down to roughly 625,000 per week from early March through mid-August.