Telemedicine Boomed When Government Cut The Red Tape
- At the start of 2020, telemedicine accounted for less than one percent of doctor’s visits. By April 2020, it exploded to nearly 69 percent.
- America was slow to adopt telemedicine because of government bureaucracies. But after the outbreak, 41 states and three territories unleashed telehealth.
- Most policy actions were temporary. By making reforms permanent, states can strengthen healthcare systems for future emergencies, address shortages of healthcare workers, and reduce costs.
Telework Kept Workplaces Moving Forward And Women Moving Ahead
- As of 2020, 71 percent of employees teleworked at least part- time. By a margin of 46 percent to 35 percent, women were more likely than men to telework in 2020.
- Employers benefited from telework cost savings including on rent, cleaning services, food and taxes, and access to broader talent pools.
- Pandemic closures are easing, but telework is not going away: more than half of new teleworkers want to continue teleworking even after the pandemic
Virtual Learning Offers Additional Ways To Learn
- Online education has the potential to solve education challenges, giving students access to advanced or personalized education support that isn’t available in their local brick-andmortar schools and offering more flexible learning opportunities for students of all ages.
- Some of the challenges families, students, and educators faced during the mass transition from in-person to virtual schooling stemmed from poor planning and implementation. They could be mitigated by greater investment and adoption of technology, but there is no onesize-fits-all solution to educating all students.
- Some online charter schools effectively employed virtual learning and closed the achievement gap for low-income students.
Innovation can solve societal problems and provide new opportunities for better and richer lives in the future. Click here to read the full policy focus and learn more about the potential of technology revealed by the pandemic.