For many years, the global healthcare industry has been at a crossroads. In the never-ending quest to lower costs while increasing standards of care, there’s been a major push to turn to technology to cure the industry’s ills. It was happening at what seemed like an opportune time, alongside the explosive growth of the internet and the current ubiquity of the smartphone.

The digitization that’s occurred in almost every other industry gave healthcare leaders confidence that the same tactics would work in hospitals, primary care facilities, and clinics. It has not gone as well as they hoped. Even today, the effort to move to digital health records is still ongoing in many parts of the world, and the push to adopt a new generation of digital diagnostic tools isn’t faring much better.

The trouble, though, isn’t just on the side of those delivering the care. It has also been an uphill battle to convince consumers to adapt to new digital forms of healthcare delivery. A primary case in point is the slow adoption of telemedicine. Despite healthcare advocates from every corner of the globe touting the game-changing nature of the technology, particularly when it comes to efficiently delivering care in underserved areas, adoption rates have remained anemic, particularly in the US.

But now, there’s evidence that the tide may finally be turning for telemedicine. Due to shut downs and patient safety concerns, healthcare providers have turned to telemedicine to offer routine care to patients without the risk of contact. And patients finally seem to be warming to the concept.

It has helped that governments around the world have put their weight behind the initiatives, letting people know in no uncertain terms that they should make use of telehealth options whenever they’re available. By making those programs a vital part of their response plans, hospitals and medical facilities have been able to scale up their use without fear of building capacity for which there would be no demand.

And medical insurance providers, for their part, made efforts early in the pandemic to let their members know that telemedicine options would be covered by their plans. That marked a big shift from the pre-pandemic status quo, where a multitude of insurers left the issue of reimbursement for telemedicine services with few clear answers.

That has led to a surge in the use of the services, mostly by patients seeking routine care that would have otherwise required an in-person visit. Patients are getting used to having yearly physicals and checkups via a digital screen, and there’s reason to believe it’s a trend that could outlast the pandemic.

There’s evidence that people are growing more comfortable with an all-remote medical experience in the fact that there’s also been a noticeable uptick in people purchasing things like glasses online, as well as opting for obtaining prescription medicines exclusively by mail. Those are purchases that were overwhelmingly made in person before the pandemic, despite their easy availability and the opportunities for savings that already existed via online options. The industry thinking is that once people recognize that they can get the same medical services, products, and experiences without setting foot in a medical facility, they’ll opt to keep using telemedicine in the future.

There have even been some advances in the way that telemedicine is being deployed in response to the pandemic. At Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, there’s been a massive increase in the use of telemedicine as a means of serving and monitoring those known to have COVID-19 as well as those suspected of having it.

The hospital, which is the largest in the region, is using an array of IoT health sensors and remote monitoring technology to track the condition of patients while they remain isolated at home. That approach has helped the keep medical staff at a safer distance and allowed the hospital to focus on providing critical care without compromising the safety of patients who haven’t been exposed to the disease.

The bottom line here is that the coronavirus pandemic, as damaging as it has been, might have been the catalyst the healthcare industry needed to advance their efforts at digitization for good. In one fell swoop, it has united the interests of both the supply and demand side of the equation in a way that would not have been likely under normal circumstances. And although it’s nothing to celebrate, this may be one positive development to come from the crisis that will leave a lasting mark on the world that we won’t mind living with.