KSTP reports…

Telehealth has taken off during the pandemic, with more patients choosing to see their physician remotely rather than visit the doctor’s office. It’s created a silver lining for companies that manufacture medical devices.

The article goes on to talk about hearing aids and defibrillators – all sorts of remote telehealth. It sounds like the technology has been ready for a while, but the pandemic has helped encourage patients…

“What we’ve seen is a dramatic increase, roughly three or four times the adoption rate of our telehealth platform during this pandemic,” said Dr. Dave Fabry, the chief innovation officer at Starkey Hearing Technologies. “I think it’s essential, especially during these times.”

He said they’ve had remote tuning technology for about 25 years but adoption rates were low until the pandemic.

“We saw the increase begin in March,” said Dr. Fabry. “When we look at the statistic, they were going along a steady rate, at relatively small proportions like many other disciplines and then it just spiked.”