Parks Associates https://www.parksassociates.com highlighted virtual care solutions at their 7th Annual Connected Health Summit: Consumer Engagement and Innovation held September 1-3, 2020. Parks Associates research shows that the use of telehealth services have nearly tripled year-over-year with 41% of U.S broadband households using telehealth services in the last 12 months.
Topics discussed included COVID-19, Telehealth and RPM, and the effects on seniors and caregiving, home-centric care, tracking health in terms of privacy and the pandemic, future of connected health and the lessons learned, plus new innovations on the horizon.
The session, Telehealth and RPM Moving to the Core of Healthcare Delivery heard Dr. Donna O’ Shea, Chief Medical Officer of Population Health Management at UnitedHealthcare present thorough ideas and thoughts from the Health Plan Perspective on how telehealth is responding to COVID-19.
She mentioned that the use of telehealth has really accelerated due to COVID-19. Health plans in general, are encouraging the use of virtual visits and today even specialty care is geared towards the use of telehealth.
She pointed out that there has been growth in home-based care via digital health and home health services. This is in response to the pandemic which has created the concept of using a patient’s home as a site for medical services. This has created the adoption of technology and the use digital tools which are able to share data from devices and apps in the home.
According to new research from Parks Associates,“25% of U.S broadband households plan to buy a connected health device in the next 12 months. Elizabeth Parks, President, Parks Associates reports, “There is a vast market opportunity for industry players with a footprint in the home to expand into the connected health space. A majority of consumers now find virtual care solutions that incorporate data from their connected health devices appealing.”
Right now, the healthcare ecosystem does not have the assets or experience to provide home services. In the session Visionary Insight: Better Together: Extending Healthcare to the Home, several ideas were presented on how to better include more services to the home.
According to Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home at Parks Associates, several technologies and new ideas are in play today such as virtual health assistants, (voice. text/avatars), AI-powered diagnostics and navigation tools, AR and VR experiences, and robotics.
The session Home Centric Care: Activating the Ecosystem Through Partnerships stressed that there are many opportunities for communications and health systems, providers, and payers to work together to provide the right care at the right time in caring for patients in the home especially during the COVID-19 pandemic..
To move forward with care in the home and effectively use technology will require companies and consumers to have access to the most up-to-date information. This is important as there is a constant array of knowledge and information available on the newest equipment, technologies, and services required to effectively provide in-home care.
To showcase how useful home monitoring can be from the home, OMRON Healthcare and Mount Sinai Health System https://www.mountsinai.org are collaborating to help high risk patients monitor their blood pressure from home.
Mt Sinai and OMRON https://omeron.com have teamed up to offer patients OMRON’s new VitalSight™ home blood pressure monitoring solution which was recently rolled out to support patients with hypertension.
Parks Associates on September 16, 2020 at 11:00 CT will present the virtual session Connected Health at Home: The Next Smart Home Market with industry experts speaking from Trapollo, Mayo Clinic, Gadgeon, and Intermountain Healthcare. Jennifer Kent, Senior Director, Parks Associates will be the Moderator. At 12:30pm, networking discussions will take place.
For information on the 9/16 event, email Rosey Ulpino at rosimelyulpino@parksassociates.com.