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Discussion on: Effects of Covid-19

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ahferroin7 profile image
Austin S. Hemmelgarn

Telemedicine has gotten a huge boost here in the US due to the pandemic, at least among the segments of the population that aren't being delusional about the whole thing. Long term this is a good thing for patients, doctors, and insurance companies as there's lower risk, lower cost, and the basic pre-screening that can be done via telemedicine tools is more than sufficient for a lot of things people might go to the doctor for.

I find it interesting that it's taken a pandemic to really cause this kind of uptake here in the US given that many organizations (including the insurance companies) have been pushing telemedicine for years now, and there's been pretty consistent apathy regarding it from most of the population.

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vinayhegde1990 profile image
Vinay Hegde

Better late than never but I believe like all things, Telemedicine has its own set of pros & cons which if not tackled suitably could cause more problems than it solves. The apathy part is something that exists in most countries because a massive investment in healthcare is often done after a calamity erupts and therefore by & large, treated as a secondary priority.

Are there other sectors you've seen a tectonic shift in or is it just telemedicine?

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ahferroin7 profile image
Austin S. Hemmelgarn

I've noticed that a lot of restaurants that never offered delivery or carry-out before are doing so now (with a number of the smarter ones employing their existing waitstaff as carhops), though whether that sticks around or not remains to be seen. I've also seen a number of cases in the area where I live where the quality of the carry-out at places that already offered it has improved significantly since before this started, though I doubt that that will continue after this all dies down again (most restaurants have better margins on customers in-house than they do on carry-out, so it makes sense for them to optimize for the in-house experience).

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vinayhegde1990 profile image
Vinay Hegde

Indeed, lot of novel ventures like these will spawn but persistence across quality & service is a whole different ballgame entirely.