Telehealth initiatives have been much-touted as potential solutions around which the industry could develop a more patient-centered care delivery model. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement, say some industry experts.

Still, even telemedicine vendors acknowledge that remote services, apps and wearables won’t fully replace in-person exams any time in the near future.

“It’s a service line by service line issue,” telehealth services firm Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney spokesperson Pam Hepp told Healthcare Finance‘s Jeff Lagasse. “There’s still going to be some amount of contact that’s necessary with a patient. I don’t see it totally replacing face-to-face visits.”

On the positive side, she indicated, most telemedicine services are easy-to-use and engaging, from the consumer’s perspective.

“If patient vitals continue to remain stable, then it might be something where the frequency of visits needs to be less, but there are certain services that need to be done over time,” Hepp said.

But she also cautioned that telehealth products don’t always deliver metrics of sufficient sensitivity and quality that a physician could use them for proper diagnosis or treatment. Nor are telehealth services and wearables currently subject to rigorous efficacy tests, safety inspections, or regulation.

Read more here, in Healthcare Finance.