Telehealth technologies can enhance patient-physician interactions, increase access to care, enable quick care interventions, and save costs when utilised as part of and in conjunction with longitudinal care. To be clear, submitting paperwork to the primary care doctor or medical home electronically, especially by fax, is not appropriate. In order to provide efficient longitudinal care, responsible care coordination is necessary to guarantee patient security and continuation of treatment for the current condition. Because of this, the treating doctor in a telemedicine care contact should be in charge of following up with the patient and the patient's primary care doctor or medical home in regard to the telemedicine encounter.
Since 2018, telemedicine has been covered by Japanese insurance, although due to free access to medical facilities, the incentive to promote telemedicine is smaller than that of other nations. There is a strong cultural bias in favour of face-to-face consultations, but it is getting harder for doctors to reach out to rural and isolated places, thus there is a pressing need to promote telemedicine.