When a patient comes into a clinic or hospital, healthcare practitioners have all the tools at their disposal to conduct thorough examinations. However, when they see a patient online, they may lack the necessary equipment to conduct the visit properly. One reason for this is that virtual care requires a lot of specialized equipment. For each instrument used during an in-person visit, there’s an equivalent telehealth device that someone has to buy.

Given how many different medical instruments are used in a single visit, the list of telemedicine equipment you need to buy can seem overwhelming. The high costs, complexity, and maintenance of these specialized tools may deter smaller healthcare practices and those operating in low-income areas from entering the telehealth space. In the long term, this could lead to a two-tier healthcare industry where high-quality care isn’t equally available to all.

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