It has been good to see that John has always had his sights past COVID-19 and into the Telehealth space. I believe that this will be transformational. It's analogous to things like:
- In-store shopping vs online shopping
- Working in the office vs flexible working from home
- Waiting for taxis vs using an app to order a driver flexibly
- Teaching in person vs teaching online (although on the teaching side there are definitely some significant downsides to long-term online teaching)
- In legal documentation, signing in person vs digital signatures
You can see that the world always moves towards something that is more convenient and more effective at achieving the same goals. I believe the health sector will be no different.
Only 2 days ago I had a phone appointment with my GP. I'd wake up in the morning with a persistent dull ache around the upper rib area (circling around the body). My GP switched to FaceTime and within minutes told me that nothing seems up and it seems like the rib needs healing, after asking me a bunch of questions. So within 10 minutes I got assessed, and if I wanted a second opinion I could just book with another GP (no travel time, no waiting in line at the GP office). He also said if the situation didn't seem right, he'd order me to go in for a scan.
The strong move towards this future has also been conveyed by John, where lots of diagnostic tools can be sent to the patients home to do the test. I mean, if the diagnostic tool is created well then the user will just do something simple to give the tool an "input" and the tool will just give an outcome as an "output", then the doctor can also manage a lot of the introductory questions over video conference and only require patients to go in if absolute necessary.
