Trading telehealth services for standard brick and mortar physician visits for minor medical issues could save the industry $104 billion, according to new research from Goldman Sachs.
Computer-based care services like Doctor on Demand and American Well enables patients to use devices such as tablets or smartphones to video chat with physicians remotely, cutting costs of a standard visit by as much as 75 percent, according to a Business Insider report.
Although study authors acknowledge that current telehealth technology can not a substitute for in-person physician visits in many instances, moving towards widespread adoption of this sort of health IT could mean significant savings in the near-future.