Before the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread in the U.S., most healthcare industry experts predicted telemedicine would be one of the top healthcare sectors in 2020, according to a recent Venrock report.
For its annual Healthcare Prognosis report, Venrock in late February surveyed more than 250 individuals from health IT startups, healthcare providers, large employers, insurance companies, academics, the government, investors and professional service providers about the biggest trends and challenges facing the healthcare industry.
However, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate in the U.S. in March, Venrock issued two follow-up surveys in late March and April to track the rapidly changing outlooks brought on by the pandemic.
For the first survey, issued between Feb. 24 and March 6, 80 percent of participants ranked analytics as the "hottest healthcare sector" in 2020, followed by telemedicine at 75 percent and digital preventive care at 59 percent.
Most participants still expected telemedicine to establish a long-term role in healthcare by the second survey, which was issued between March 22 and April 3. Seventy-two percent said telemedicine will become a lasting part of Medicare/Medicaid, while 57 percent said telemedicine will replace office-based visits. Twenty-six percent said telemedicine is just a fad.
Click here to view the full report.