Close to half of medical orgs adopted telehealth solutions post pandemic: Report

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in a report said that about 91% medical organisations have now rolled out telehealth capabilities, with 44% adopting the solutions post pandemic. 

The research, published on November 24, 2021, took inputs from 389 healthcare providers across 36 nations. 

Telehealth may be defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.  

However, 52% said that they experienced cases where the patients refused to adopt l pertaining to some security concerns.   

Moreover, 56% of respondents said they are looking to augment investments in telehealth and virtual care solutions, with 71% saying that telehealth services will add the most value to the healthcare sector in the next five years. 

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“The level of trust within the industry is inextricably linked to a provider’s ability to ensure the safety of the sensitive information they collect, share, and store,” said Evgeniya Naumova, Executive Vice President, Corporate Business, at Kaspersky.   

“With rapid development and complexity making the healthcare industry more lucrative to malicious actors, now is the time for healthcare institutions to make cybersecurity their first priority,” added Naumova.   

About 42% said that patients are now more interested in remote than in-person sessions because of convenience. Besides, 51% said that their patients were under the age of 50, hinting that there is strong adopting of telehealth among the younger generations as well.   

Among all the services provided, the common ones were synchronous telehealth, wearable devices, and asynchronous telehealth, as voted by 51%, 41% and 39% respectively.   

About 74% of respondents had experienced cases of video call refusals, while 33% did not trust telehealth, and 32% had an unwillingness to appear on video. On the flipside, 81% of medical professionals also said that they were worried about protecting users data.  

Alarmingly, only 36% are confident that their company has the necessary security protocols in place.