Outside Publication

Telehealth Is Here to Stay—In the United States and in Germany, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies

June 04, 2020

Before COVID-19, telehealth (a patient seeing and talking to a doctor or other health care provider over the Internet) has long been viewed as an ancillary mode of medical treatment in Germany and the United States. The number of actual virtual “check-ins” has been low. In the past, doctors have used telehealth as mere oversight for low-risk medications and were limited to only a few subspecialties (i.e., dermatology). The medical community/boards have voiced their skepticism of telehealth, raising standard-of-care questions and the doctor-patient relationship in general. They have called for a specific set of rules regarding modalities, and the interaction between patient and health care provider. Germany is now moving ahead with its ambitious plans to finance telemedicine.

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