It's been a tumultuous year for healthcare, from a global vaccine rollout and the threat of virus variants to the rise of telehealth and virtual care services.

MobiHealthNews asked executives and other leaders in the digital health space what they learned in 2021 and how the rapidly expanding sector will change in 2022. This week we're focusing on whether the rapid growth of telehealth and virtual care services seen during the COVID-19 pandemic kept up its momentum in 2021. In the coming weeks, we'll hear their answers on topics like the year's huge funding numbers and what comes next for the industry.

Snezana Mahon, chief operating officer of Transcarent

"I think the novelty of virtual care for many consumers will wear off, but the concept of care on your own terms is going to accelerate even more in the coming years. The pandemic proved that we could do it, but for real staying power, telemedicine has to be part of a broader omnichannel strategy to meet people where they are and provide a convenient experience. It's the type of experience people are used to in every other aspect of their lives, but healthcare just hasn't caught up."

Carolyn Witte, cofounder and CEO of Tia

"While COVID-19 did accelerate virtual care, the future of primary care will be virtually integrated, as opposed to virtual only. Virtual care is an incredibly important vehicle to increasing access, but in order for it to continue growing, we must move beyond the virtual and in-person care binary and start looking to connect the care continuum in more places, like home health."

Michelle Davey, cofounder and CEO of Wheel

"I've seen a lot of headlines over recent months about fluctuating telehealth rates. Skeptics have been quick to suggest that the demand for virtual care was driven by short-term fear of the virus rather than a long-term change in behavior and preferences. I firmly believe that telehealth isn't a fad. And we can't measure progress and innovation in headlines. We took a technology that had been undervalued and under-resourced and held it up against the weight of a public health emergency. It takes time to build the next generation of virtual care. And it takes time to introduce a new way of operating across an entire industry."

Kyle Armbrester, CEO of Signify Health

"I see the acceleration of virtual care as part of a larger movement happening across healthcare toward doing and providing more services in and around the home. As a healthcare community and as healthcare consumers, we have moved away from the belief that care must only be delivered inside the clinic walls.

"The pandemic certainly fueled higher adoption of telehealth, and that persisted into 2021. But we've also seen a boom in the development and utilization of remote-monitoring tools and a surge in demand for in-home health services.

"And while virtual care certainly filled an important need during the pandemic, there really is no substitute for in-person care. Virtual has certainly proven it has a place within the care continuum, but there is only so much a clinician can do through a screen.

"Delivering more services in the home gives clinicians the ability to get a deeper understanding of their patients, from the medications they're taking – or not taking – to the in-home safety risks that pose a threat to their overall health, to the social determinants that prevent them from being able to achieve good health at home.

"This movement has opened the eyes of health systems: They now realize they can discharge patients directly home, where they can recover in comfort, and leverage these tools and services to help keep them healthy."

Kyna Fong, cofounder and CEO of Elation Health

“Yes. In fact, virtual care has not only become a standard feature of care delivery for many doctor's offices, it has become a new market sector in its own right. It has been one of the greatest disruptors in the healthcare space in history, spurred on in large part by a weakened and anemic system of primary care.

"Virtual care delivery models, often backed by venture capital, have blossomed like a spring garden to meet various healthcare needs in a variety of domains, which very often could be met by one's own community primary care doctor – if one had a primary care doctor.

"Virtual primary care, virtual physical therapy, virtual mental health services, virtual smoking cessation, virtual contraception, virtual disease management – the rise in HIPAA-compliant virtual platforms as a response to COVID-19 has been fertile soil for a groundswell of niche virtual business models, straining to fill the void left behind by an unfortunate shortage of primary care in the U.S. healthcare landscape."