While there are serious limitations to using telemedicine, it can be a powerful triage tool. Technology news is on smart thermometers and social media, as well.
Stat: Telemedicine Can Blunt The Cost Of Unnecessary Covid-19 Visits
Conversations that dominated the health policy discourse only a few weeks ago have been suspended as we scramble to contain Covid-19. The overall cost of health care in the United States was a first-order concern before the virus struck. Now, most people are focused on the critically important but narrower issue of the price tag of Covid-19 testing and treatment. (Broffman, 3/19)
The New York Times: Can Smart Thermometers Track The Spread Of The Coronavirus?
A company that uses internet-connected thermometers to predict the spread of the flu says it is tracking the coronavirus in real time — something that had been impossible, given the lack of testing for the disease. Kinsa Health has sold or given away more than a million smart thermometers to households in which two million people reside, and thus can record fevers almost as soon as consumers experience them. (McNeil, 3/18)
CNN: The Coronavirus Is Stretching Facebook To Its Limits
The coronavirus is forcing big changes to the way Facebook operates and stretching the company to its limits, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook must continue to tackle an urgent and potentially dangerous form of misinformation around the virus while it simultaneously tries to figure out how much work its content moderators can do remotely at home and faces an unprecedented surge in usage that has the company scrambling just to keep its services running. (Iyengar, 3/18)
This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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