Telehealth for Home Dialysis in COVID-19 and Beyond: A Perspective From the American Society of Nephrology COVID-19 Home Dialysis Subcommittee

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, technological advancements, regulatory waivers, and user acceptance converged to boost telehealth activities during the public health emergency. Providers were able to deliver and bill for services across state lines for new and established patients via HIPAA and non-HIPAA compliant platforms with home as the originating site and without geographic restrictions. Platforms were developed or purchased to perform videoconferencing. The interdisciplinary dialysis team adapted to perform virtual visits. Dialysis providers, clinicians, nurses and patients describe their telehealth experiences and challenges they encountered, exposing healthcare disparities in areas such as access to care, bandwidth connectivity, devices to perform telehealth, and socioeconomic and language barriers. Future directions in telehealth utilization, quality measures and research in telehealth usage need to be explored. Telehealth during the public health emergency has changed the practice of healthcare, with the post COVID-19 world unlikely to resemble the pre-COVID-19 era. The future impact of telehealth in patient care remains to be seen, especially in the context of the Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative.