Earlier this year, Michael Harrison, business development manager of southeast Wisconsin for Madison-based BioForward, an advocacy and resource organization for Wisconsin's biotechnology and life sciences industry, said adoption of telemedicine in Wisconsin has skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic with patients forced to consult with their health care providers in a virtual setting.
In Milwaukee specifically, that adoption by health care providers is among the fastest in the U.S., according to research by Doximity, an online network for doctors.
Doximity ranks Milwaukee 22nd out of the top 25 cities in the nation for fastest adoption of telemedicine technology. New York City ranked first, followed by Boston Chicago and Philadelphia. As for other Midwest cities, Minneapolis was 13th, Detroit was 15th and Cleveland ranks 19th.
During a Milwaukee Business Journal Flash Forum on health care during the Covid-19 crisis in April, executives disclosed details on how their respective networks were delivering care via virtual channels.
Advocate Aurora had a total of 13,000 virtual visits for all of 2019, but between March 1 and mid April, the health care system conducted 83,338 such visits with 42,756 of those in Wisconsin. At Ascension Wisconsin, the number of virtual visits for primary care and urgent care skyrocketed to about 30,000 through a four-week period ending in mid-April from 200 the previous four months combined.
In the nine months preceding March, Children’s Wisconsin completed approximately 600 virtual visits. Over a two-month period during the pandemic, Children’s Wisconsin had completed nearly 15,000 virtual visits. This includes about 3,000 visits for mental and behavioral health services, which was an early focus of Children’s.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of U.S. respondents reporting having at least one telehealth visit has increased by 57%, Doximity said. For those with a chronic illness, it's 77%.
New ways of delivering health care are gaining momentum as hospitals grapple with the challenges of the pandemic – and more consumers are staying in their homes. About 20% of all medical visits will be conducted via telemedicine this year, which represents $29.3 billion in medical services, according to Doximity. Meanwhile, spending for virtualizing health care can go up to $106 billion by 2023.
