Amazon is launching its healthcare business, Amazon Care, across the U.S., expanding its telehealth services beyond its own employees.

Telehealth claim lines rose 2,817% from December 2019 to December 2020, according to a new report that revealed how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how healthcare is delivered and consumed.

Technology adoption in healthcare is at an all-time high, and the attractiveness of telehealth and other innovative solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue driving how healthcare is delivered through the next decade.

Google searches for “telehealth” have fallen far since peaking in March 2020. However, the term is plateauing at a rate that’s 320% higher than in pre-pandemic times.

An international group of scientists and clinicians is calling on health systems to fight COVID-19 and future public health crises by integrating AI and robotics within a care-delivery framework emphasizing telemedicine.

The American Medical Association has adopted new telehealth policy positions, the organization announced upon the Tuesday closing of a special five-day virtual meeting. 

The temporary telehealth reforms put in place to help the U.S. weather the COVID-19 storm “are good for patients and should be made permanent.”

Providers seeing patients remotely via Microsoft Teams make up the target market for a Nuance voice-recognition offering that automatically takes clinical notes during virtual visits and renders them useful immediately afterward.