Dr. Joseph Kvedar: The Potential of Telemedicine in the Era of Digitalization
Telemedicine is an intervention that facilitates patient access to healthcare outside of the doctor's office. To manage overwhelming patient populations, in recent years, hospital systems around the world have started to embrace it. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has only accentuated the value of this approach with mandatory measures like lockdown and social distancing in place. "The interest in remote or virtual care delivery has been accelerating in the last five years, but our time to shine is now," says Dr. Joseph Kvedar, who has been a staunch advocate of digital health for close to three decades. A seasoned dermatologist at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kvedar has been at the forefront of telemedicine with his eminent leadership at Partners HealthCare. We invited him for a discussion on the promise of the field.