TELEHEALTH
Digital Health Care A look at growing trends BY DR. ROBERT KANTOR, MD AND KRISTI HENDERSON
W
ith the COVID-19 pandemic creating necessary constraints on how, when and where people access health care, digital health resources have emerged as an important bridge helping keep health care professionals and their patients stay connected.
One recent analysis estimated by 2027 the digital health market will have grown by nearly 18% a year. This growth projectscts the potential benefit of digital health technology, including its ability to help facilitate more personalized conversations between patients and doctors based on near real-time data. As health care professionals look for ways to expand patient services and grow their practices, leveraging digital health technologies is likely to become increasingly important. What follows are strategies health care professionals might consider during COVID-19 and beyond.
Integrating Virtual Care The pandemic is creating a reliance on and awakening of the full potential of virtual care, opening a door to reinvent the model of care moving forward.
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MARCH 2021 MINNESOTA PHYSICIAN
The key is using digital heath tools to help care professionals reach, engage and build trust with patients in ways that cannot be accomplished with infrequent visits to a doctor’s office. Health care professionals can consider offering a hybrid model of both virtual and in-clinic services that can maximize the patient experience, increase quality, drive affordability and optimize clinic-space utilization. The use of virtual care resources has surged more than 10-fold compared to before COVID-19 emerged, with more than half of consumers stating that the pandemic has increased their willingness to try virtual care. For many patients, virtual care provides a more convenient way to help connect with care professionals about various health issues, ranging from routine care and urgent health concerns to ongoing chronic condition management, and specialty services. The potential benefits are much broader than improved convenience and access. Virtual care minimizes geographic disparities seen by the 60 million Americans living in rural areas, reduces transportation challenges that are cited as the third most common barrier to care, and can remove a hurdle that makes accessing care difficult for the 40% of Americans who have at least one disability. A digitally-enabled system can minimize these inequities by delivering the right care – at the right time – in any location and ultimately create a better patient experience. To help make that possible for their practices, health care professionals may want to evaluate offering these services through their own virtual care platform or contracting with a third-party vendor. Creating a virtual care checklist for staff members may also be helpful as this practical tool can support a smoother experience for both patients and staff. In addition, health professionals may want to take the CORE Telehealth Certificate program to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge they need to provide safe and high-quality care through telehealth. It’s also important to keep in mind that investing in virtual care capabilities can support a practice’s progression through the continuum of value-based care and encourage success in risk-based contracts with health plans. Virtual care tools are becoming increasingly important to close care gaps and improve Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) scores. By improving patient access to virtual care and through other digital tools like remote monitoring, it may improve health outcomes, better identify and manage chronic conditions, improve satisfaction, enhance connections and relationships and curb costs – all important outcomes in any value-based care program. It is important to note that health plans are now embracing – and reimbursing for – virtual care. Even after COVID19 declines, it will be important for medical practices to continue offering virtual care solutions to help meet patients’ needs and expectations, and to encourage success in risk-based contracts with health plans. Strides in technology have also made telepharmacy largely indistinguishable from traditional pharmacy. Telepharmacy can be offered through remote dispensing sites, which look and feel like a pharmacy. Prescriptions and patient counseling are overseen by a pharmacist remotely,
