Did COVID-19 Supercharge Telemedicine: An Interview with Dr. Emmanuel Fombu

COVID-19 has reshaped our daily lives, but how has it affected healthcare? Join Darshan Kulkarni as he talks with health IT expert Emmanual Fombu about some major changes happening in healthcare due to the pandemic. We'll talk about how the pandemic has resulted in an increase in demand for telehealth services and virtual clinical trials, and how long this trend might last. Narrator: This is a DarshanTalks Podcast. Before this weeks interview with Doctor Emmanuel Fombu on COVID-19's impact on telemedicine, Darshan will introduce this episode with a recap for the week of Thursday May 14th, 2020. Darshan: So this has been a bit of a slow week. People have been talking about COVID and people are starting to get restless, but I've done a bunch of different podcasts and the big takeaway has been that COVID is affecting how we're going to do business. I can think of three very clear ways COVID is going to affect business. All of them are not necessarily game changers as much as COVID has accelerated the direction of where we're going. Number one, I think we're going to end up with more virtual working. And that means that your employees may not be sitting out of your office anymore, they may ask... No, no, no, they may demand that they sit out of their own houses, do their own work at their own time. So that, it's the end of your traditional 9:00 to 5:00 because little Johnny still has to go to school and he comes back at three O'clock and the mother or the father taking care of them wants to take that time off, take care of little Johnny, get him settled in and then go back to work. The second thing we're looking at is an acceleration into decentralized trials. I've had a bunch of different conversations, and the big takeaway has been that decentralized trials are here. The question is, will they say? And I think that there's an argument to be made, that based on the investments that are taking place, decentralized studies will start making more of a footprint. I would be surprised if the decentralized trials go as quickly as people are expecting, not because they don't mean as much, but because all the investments aren't completely there yet, which means that, it becomes a nice add on, but I don't see it becoming a here-to-stay for the next year to two years at least. Stay tuned and reach out to me if you think that I'm wrong about this. I could be wrong, leave a comment. The other thing that I think will be here to stay is this idea of patient centricity. And patients have now started looking online, and we've always been looking online for information, but patients are now going to say, "I want to be able to handle my life in the way that I want to handle it." And with that comes the concept of telehealth, with that comes the idea of how does one reach out and be understood by your clinicians, by your clinical trust staff in a way that meets them on their own terms. So, those are my big three take aways. Another sort of bonus take away, is the fact that Zoom meetings, GoToMeetings, the other different formats out there on connecting virtually are likely here to stay. Companies are already talking about reducing their office footprint, companies are already discussing what are better ways to engage? Jeff Morgan actually came on here and said that they were going to reduce their footprint. So if all that is true, the big question is going to become, how do I look professional when I'm in my own house? How do I make sure that my walls are clean? How do I make sure that my outfit doesn't clash with the Zoom background? How do I make sure that I stand out and look professional? There have been instances where people walk away from their Zoom meeting without their pants on,