move them to a clinic are also a consideration. However, whether or not the standard of health care quality is increasing is debatable, with some literature refuting such claims. Research has reported that clinicians find the process difficult and complex to deal with. Furthermore, there are concerns around informed consent, legality issues as well as legislative issues. A recent study also highlighted that the swift and large-scale implementation of telehealth across the United Kingdom NHS Allied Health Professional (AHP) services might increase disparities in health care access for vulnerable populations with limited digital literacy. Although health care may become affordable with the help of technology, whether or not this care will be "good" is the issue. Many patient experience studies indicate high satisfaction with telemedicine. Major problems with increasing adoption include technically challenged staff, resistance to change or habits and age of patient. Focused policy could eliminate several barriers. A review lists a number of potentially good practices and pitfalls, recommending the use of "virtual handshakes" for confirming identity, taking consent for conducting remote consultation over a conventional meeting, and professional standardized norms for protecting patient privacy and confidentiality. It also found that the COVID-19 pandemic substantially increased, voluntarily, the adoption of telephone or video consultation and suggests that telemedicine technology "is a key factor in delivery of health care in the future". Economic evaluations Due to its digital nature it is often assumed that telehealth saves the health system money. However, the evidence to support this is varied. When conducting economic evaluations of telehealth services, the individuals evaluating them need to be aware of potential outcomes and extraclinical benefits of the telehealth service. Economic viability relies on the funding model within the country being examined (public vs private), the consumers willingness-to-pay, and the expected remuneration by the clinicians or commercial entities providing the services (examples of research on these topics from teledermoscopy in Australia) In a UK telehealth trial done in 2011, it was reported that the cost of health could be dramatically reduced with the use of telehealth monitoring. The usual cost of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) per cycle would be around $15,000; with telehealth it was reduced to $800 per patient. In Alaska the Federal Health Care Access Network, which connects 3,000 healthcare providers to communities, engaged in 160,000 telehealth consultations from 2001 and saved the state $8.5 million in travel costs for just Medicaid patients. Digital