Virtual care isn't new. We can trace it back to the early 1900s when ECGs were transmitted over telephone lines (Nesbitt, 2012). But it took a global pandemic to turn telehealth from a convenience to a necessity. That catapulting it into the mainstream, and even exposed some of the fundamental limitations of traditional healthcare delivery. Families of children with developmental challenges, chronic conditions, or behavioral concerns often faced many barriers: transportation difficulties, missed work, complicated childcare for siblings, long wait times for specialists, and rushed in-person visits that struggle to capture real-life behavior.
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When practices went back to in-person care, some of virtual care advantages stood out.  Continuity for ongoing health needs, convenience for busy families, improved accessibility, and reduced infection transmission were just a few (Hensel et al., 2024). Now we are at an inflection point in 2025: How can virtual care really benefit us without being an additional technological burden?
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That sudden shift in care delivery five years ago revealed just how unprepared many healthcare institutions were. Before the pandemic, in some places less than 1% of appointments were virtual. Suddenly, many practices were delivering 70 to 95% of care online (Wosik et al., 2020). That was a remarkable feat under the circumstances. But it also left providers and families navigating unfamiliar technology, connectivity issues, and privacy concerns. Virtual care became synonymous with glitchy screens, frustrating interfaces and exhausting days. For many, these technology struggles weren't limited to healthcare - they invaded classrooms, workplaces, and homes, making life harder rather than easier in many cases.
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We had little choice but to go virtual in the middle of a public health crisis, We relied on whatever worked in the moment. Yet these challenges shouldn’t define what virtual care can be. They just highlight what happens when implementation outpaces thoughtful design. We need to understand where we fell short , and recognize the real potential of e-health when it's done right. 
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Technology is a tool, not a miracle. Those struggles were real, so we need to approach its design with careful thought and scientific rigor.  We want the next phase of virtual care to be intuitive, and reduce cognitive burden rather than add to it.
 

Traditional models of care have fundamental limitations that even well-executed in-person visits can’t overcome. Brief intermittent encounters - whether virtual or in-person - can’t adequately address the complex, ongoing needs of children and their families. Parents navigate developmental challenges, behavioral concerns, and chronic conditions 24/7 with minimal support between appointments. Those gaps require more than just digitizing existing models. They’ll benefit from entirely new approaches that use the technology already in most parents' pockets. 
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Digital platforms need to solve real problems not create new ones. This means balancing past failures with optimism and critically evaluating the current patient and family experience: What stops patients from following care plans? What delays access to quality care? What do patients need that they aren't getting? And most importantly - do we even need technology to solve these problems? If the answer is yes, then we need to design not for corporate presentations but for actual families - exhausted parents juggling their child’s health needs in real time.
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It should enhance engagement, provide quick and secure communication with providers, simple reminders, and easy access to personalized education. It should bridge the digital divide - working just as well for tech-savvy parents with high-speed internet as for families relying on mobile data or shared devices.
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The goal isn’t just to replicate an in-person visit on a screen. It’s to create something better - platforms that improve communication, simplify access, empower caregivers, close loops with pediatricians, and integrate education in ways traditional models never could. Some families at Ladder Health are already experiencing this shift. “This is good for me because I have a ride problem,” explains one parent. Another told us, “The clinic we used to go to is 30 minutes away, which is hard with my work schedule.”
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Healthcare expectations have fundamentally changed. Families now expect pediatric care to mirror the convenience of their daily digital experiences. Parents managing their child’s health want the same streamlined experience they get when ordering groceries or video chatting with relatives - intuitive interfaces, on-demand access, and tools that solve problems not create them.
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As we move forward, the healthcare industry needs to resist the temptation to treat technology as an inherent good. By acknowledging where early virtual care fell short while embracing its potential, we can create solutions that actually improve healthcare delivery. The technology should fade into the background, enabling better healthcare rather than becoming another system to struggle against.
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The 21st-century house call can be a real improvement for many families - but only if we make it simpler, more accessible, and genuinely more helpful than what came before.
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References:

Hensel, J. M., Lemoine, J., Bolton, S.-L., Perera, E., Arpin, M., & Modirrousta, M. (2024). When “virtual” works and when it doesn’t: A survey of physician and patient experiences with virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital Health, 4(10). Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11151755/

Nesbitt, T. S. (2012). The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207141/

Wosik, J., Fudim, M., Cameron, B., Gellad, Z., Cho, A., Phinney, D., Curtis, S., Roman, M., Poon, E. G., Ferranti, J., Katz, J. N., & Tcheng, J. (2020). Telehealth transformation: COVID-19 and the rise of virtual care. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(6), 957-962. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7188147/#ocaa067-F2