One of the enduring trends arising out of the pandemic will be telemedicine. Social distancing measures propelled telemedicine to another level, and it can continue to be of benefit, particularly for areas where proper healthcare is difficult to reach.
Providing care via virtual technology can allow for medical expertise to be dispelled in hard-to-reach areas, smashing boundaries when it comes to effective healthcare delivery. This means patients can get medical advice from specialists that they may not otherwise have had access to due to distance limitations.
“I am enthusiastic about virtual care’s potential to address rural healthcare access, and I believe it can be used to improve barriers to access in a number of ways,” said Shayan Vyas, senior vice president and medical director of hospital and health system at Teladoc Health, in a Healthare IT News article.
“It’s important to remember that improving rural health is more than just increasing access to care,” Vyas added. “Improving rural health also means improving access to scarcely available specialists and subspecialists that patients may not otherwise be able to see, at least not in a timely manner. This is particularly vital for specialties like stroke or cardiology where access to a specialist via virtual care can literally save lives.”
Capitalizing on Telemedicine Growth
As more healthcare facilities utilize telemedicine, investors can harness its growth potential with healthcare exchange traded funds (ETFs) that focus on this trend. One such fund is the Global X Telemedicine and Digital Health ETF (EDOC).
EDOC seeks to invest in companies positioned to benefit from further advances in the field of telemedicine and digital health. This includes companies involved in telemedicine, healthcare analytics, connected healthcare devices, and administrative digitization.
The fund offers investors the following:
- High growth potential: EDOC enables investors to access high growth potential through companies at the leading edge of a structural trend affecting the global healthcare industry.
- An unconstrained approach: The fund’s composition transcends classic sector, industry, and geographic classifications by tracking an emerging theme.
- ETF efficiency: In a single trade, EDOC delivers access to dozens of companies with high exposure to the telemedicine and digital health theme.
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