By Josephine Akaerr

Telemedicine looks to be here to stay as leading companies in this space have reported dramatic increases in demand for their services in the US since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Some of the biggest benefiters have been the Synzi Virtual Care app for physicians, which saw a whole 1,600 per cent increase in downloads YoY, and MediSprout’s V2MD patient companion app, which increased from just under 50 in 2019 to around 4,100 in Q2 2020 – a 8,270 per cent increase.

Data from GlobalData’s latest research report, ‘Use of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US’, shows analysis of mobile app download data from PrioriData. It found that most leading providers of patient and physician platforms experienced an increase in downloads from March, with many seeing more activity in Q2 2020 compared to all of 2019.

The patient companion app for InTouch Health had approximately 2,300 downloads in 2019, but over 22,300 in Q2 2020, at an increase of about 870 per cent. Likewise, the patient companion app for VSee had a download increase of 460 per cent in Q2 2020 compared to 2019. Challengers in the space also experienced increases in app downloads for their platforms. For example, the Anytime Pediatrics app by Anytime Telehealth had almost 17,000 downloads in Q2 2020, compared to less than 1,000 for all of 2019.

Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, Kathryn Whitney comments: “While many of the US state and federal emergency regulations surrounding telemedicine that were put into place during the pandemic were initially meant to be temporary, it is appearing more likely that some of these could be made permanent in the future. The pandemic has shown the many wide-ranging benefits of telemedicine, and, given the unprecedented surge in demand for these services, it is unlikely that regulations, policies and healthcare in general will entirely go back to the way they were before the pandemic.”

For on-demand urgent care services, the telemedicine market in the US can be split into several categories. This includes standalone platforms for patients (such as those from Teladoc Health, Amwell and MDLIVE), standalone platforms for providers, healthcare systems (such as Doxy.me, Updox, and InTouch Health), healthcare IT solutions with integrated telemedicine modules, and general consumer videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom.