Medical home visit programs during COVID-19 state of emergency.

Elderly, homebound individuals comprise a vulnerable segment of society who have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through a myriad of unique challenges. There is a significant amount of fear of acquiring COVID-19 by seeking health care services, which has adversely affected patients by worsening fixable situations. Another challenge is the decrease in diagnostic support for evaluating patients compared with a pre-COVID-19 world.

Perspective: What a Difference a Disaster Makes: The Telehealth Revolution in the Age of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Despite the existence of telemedicine since the late 1950s and early 1960s, it took a pandemic to bring this technology mainstream. The critical urgency of the pandemic drove an auspicious alignment of policy, economics, and technology to facilitate the widespread implementation of telehealth. It is imperative that this synchronicity be maintained in the post-COVID era in order to optimize our health care system to be ready for the next threat to the health of the United States.