Leaders voiced their thoughts at the Parks Associates https://www.parksassociates.com Connected Health Summit held August 31, 2021 at a session centered on virtual health and remote monitoring.
Opening the session, Jennifer Kent, VP, Research, Parks Associates explained how virtual care has changed the location for care and brought care to the best location possible for the patient.
Statistics show that 52% want a telehealth service that uses data from connected health devices, 64% report using telehealth services in 2021 up from 15% in 2019, 66% have experienced a remote health consultation, and statistics show that remote health consultations grew 56% between 2020 and 2021.
Visionary insight was presented by Susan Taylor Director, External Affairs, Scripps Health. Scripps offers three ways to Get Care Now. One way is through Scripps Video Visit which lets the patient talk to the provider in real time, Scripps E-Visit an online health questionnaire, and Scripps Symptom Checker available 24/7 to help assess symptoms.
She discussed how Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute offers community-based diabetic care and education by addressing culturally diverse populations. The Institute is studying how new devices such as the Dexcom G6CGM system can be effectively used to help hospitalized diabetes patients with COVID.
Other devices include using a cell phone to analyze breath to determine serious illnesses, implant devices to determine serious heart conditions, the use of WATCHMAN a heart implant device to reduce the risk of stroke for people with AFib, the Cardio MEMS HF System significantly reduces hospital admissions, plus the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) which is a mechanical circulatory support device.
Mark Vena, Senior Director, Smart Home and Strategy, at Parks Associates conducted an Executive Q&A conducted with Dr. David Cook, Senior VP, Optum Labs, UnitedHealth Group. Dr. Cook discussed how using telehealth during COVID made it possible for different populations to receive medical care, increased the desire for mobile technologies and digital wellness apps to track a patient’s movement, plus the use of other internet connected devices.
He mentioned how the use of wearables are able to address specific medical issues which can then forward the information to the physician to support decision-making. One problem is that although wearable devices can lower costs for medical care, if data breaches occur, privacy can be affected.
The Interactive Panel moderated by Jennifer Kent centered on user experiences with telehealth and discussed how consumers view the use of virtual care as a standard offering, even when there is no longer an urgent crisis.
In discussing Northwell Health, Iris Berman VP of Telehealth Services, reported that Norwell as the largest health system in New York State, has seen the use of telehealth services really experience good growth over the past several years. Today Northwell during COVID-19 was able to provide 8,000 visits a day. However. there are still interoperability issues along with the need to access to broadband in both some urban and rural communities.
The Validic Impact platform is able to leverage personal health data from hundreds of devices for most RPM programs as reported by Brian Carter, Chief Product Officer, Validic. Impact offers the ability to leverage hundreds of devices to support remote care for chronic and post-acute conditions.
Rob Deal, VP, Healthcare Solutions, Everise reports that the company specializes in healthcare with an emphasis on technology. He discussed how their cloud-based omni channel solution set along with training technology supports patients in all demographics and technology comfort levels.
As Medical Director, Mia Finkelston, notes that Amwell’s Psychiatric Care provides on demand telepsychology services when needed. Amwell recently signed an agreement to acquire SilverCloud Health a digital mental health platform and Conversa Health a company involved in automated virtual healthcare.
As explained by Dr. Prentiss Taylor, VP, Medical Affairs, Doctor on Demand’s full suite of personalized Total Virtual Care services includes primary care, integrated behavioral health, every day and urgent care, chronic condition management and prevention, 24/7 triage, navigation, and ongoing care coordination to enable patients to get the right care at the right time.