Yes, for any exam or condition that requires a doctor to auscultate or palpitate (two wonderful words, those), it seems telemedicine is lacking. Some patients may have things like sphygmomanometers, pulse oximeters, even stethoscopes at home, and they can relay information to doctors. But not everyone does, nor has the knowledge to use them properly, and not all such devices are equally accurate.
As I understand it, the yearly physical is not something health care providers encourage as much as they once did. This interests me, because I thought preventative medicine saved lives and money both, and if you don't catch something early, well...
Our Kaiser is allowing patients to come in for exams and procedures that can't be done remotely, like eye exams or my alopecia injections. They require masks and have tightened their protocols (the first time I went in, they ignored a couple that had their masks pulled down and were eating their lunch in the waiting area), but they have also gone from having someone scan your temp and asking you screening questions at the door to asking you to call and confirm that you don't have a fever or other Covid symptoms within 24 hours of going in.
Veterinarians are not doing telemedicine, from what I've seen. They're in a different situation, of course, where the patients themselves are very unlikely to transmit the virus, and vets also rely more on exams, because their patients can't tell them what symptoms they are experiencing (and owners aren't always reliable observers either). They take the patient back for their exams while the owner waits in their car, and payment and instructions/consults are done over the phone. Some vets say it's nice just to have the patient without having to deal with the owner directly, but others say it's much more inefficient to not be able to ask about things as they come up during the exam. As a pet owner, I know I sometimes remember things to ask or mention while I observe the ongoing exam.
It's also much slower, so the waits at vet clinics and emergency facilities have lengthened, and the wait for appointments have too.
I've been waiting at vet clinics a lot over the past couple of weeks, because one of our cats has just been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition and my 7-month old kelpie pup (whom I had big plans for with regards to agility and maybe herding) has just been diagnosed with hip dysplasia
Between the pet issues, and navigating the intricacies of the mandated reporting system (and its limitations) and just feeling like shit over seeing the conditions so many of my students are forced to live in (something distance technology has made me privy to), it has not been a great week. I may need to call my doctor and ask if I should up my Bupropion dosage.
I'm also sad about the way Covid has damaged my relationship with some people. Just talked to a friend who's been out of the state (in Wyoming with her parents, where she stayed after having to go home for a funeral) for a while, and she gleefully announced that she was able to head over to that Sturgis bike rally (she is also not a spring chicken being a few years older than I, who is also not a spring chicken). She grew noticeably colder when I expressed a certain amount of shock and concern over this. Sigh. So many folks I thought I knew are turning out to have not a lick of sense right now, and they are eating up very partisan crap with regards to lockdowns and risk assessment, but that's a topic for a different thread.