75 percent of patients interested in telemedicine….(US)

…and 73 percent have never participated in a video consult. Those are some surprises contained in a recently published study summary, “Patient Interest in Adopting Telemedicine,” conducted by Software Advice, a site which publishes reviews on medical (and other) software. The interest is indicative of a greater willingness to use virtual visits despite concerns on the lack of in-person interaction, technical problems, no physical examination and not knowing if health insurance covers it. 63 percent of telemedicine users had increased satisfaction, and both users and non-users overwhelmingly preferred at least the notion of telemedicine to an emergency room visit. Other key benefits are ‘the comfort of home’ and not having to travel–more so than quick access to care. Also valuable in the study is an up-to-date US map of the states with their ‘parity law’ status on insurance payments. The methodology was a two-day online survey of 17 questions with 519 responses (381 non-telemedicine users and 138 telemedicine users). Software Advice claims to have performed and funded this research independently. Patient Interest in Adopting Telemedicine, IndustryView | 2015