Lessons learned from the pandemic about telehealth and online classrooms

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of telehealth and online classrooms, and we’ve learned a lot from this experience. Here are some key lessons and potential improvements:

Telehealth:

1. Adoption and Accessibility: Telemedicine has been available for many years, but it was not widely used due to inconsistent coverage and unfamiliarity with the technology¹. The pandemic drove the institution of telemedicine in all areas of healthcare¹. However, disparities in accessibility were observed by sex, residing area, income, and census region².
2. Infrastructure: A robust technological infrastructure was key to ensuring a quick telehealth transition³.
3. Policy Changes: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took steps to expedite the adoption of telehealth during the pandemic. Some of these flexibilities have been made permanent while others are temporary⁴.

Improvements for Telehealth:

1. Optimizing Use: The key challenge may be optimizing the use of telehealth⁵.
2. Policy Changes: To account for Covid-19, 22 states and Medicare expanded coverage of telehealth services⁶.
3. Physician Needs: Liability coverage, data privacy, and workflow integration with electronic health record (EHR) systems were identified as physician needs for adoption⁷.

Online Classrooms:

1. Adaptability: Teachers had to adapt to unexpected conditions, teaching in unprecedented ways, using synchronous and asynchronous instruction⁸.
2. Innovation: Despite the hardships endured by students, faculty, and staff, the university’s pivot to remote education offers valuable lessons for the future⁹.
3. Engagement: Fully online college students are twice as likely to say they are ‘comfortable sharing their opinions in class’ compared to fully in-person students¹⁰.

Improvements for Online Classrooms:

1. Hybrid Learning: Hybrid learning – which combines in-person and remote learning – is here to stay¹¹.
2. Teacher Commitment: During the pandemic, teachers have become less certain that they would work a full career in the classroom⁸.
3. Innovation Adoption: Abandoning the presumption that teacher-and-student-in-classroom is the right model for all students or all learning makes much else possible¹².

These lessons can guide us in improving telehealth services and online classrooms even after the pandemic.