E-HEALTH - E-SANTE - PHARMAGEEK

The pandemic drove many patients to their primary care docs via video. And it worked.

 

A telehealth expert (Dr. Peter Antall) explains how this shift could become a permanent hybrid with in-person care in an Interview with healthcareITNews

 

Here is a summary from the interview.

 

What is Virtual Primary Care

Virtual primary care is allowing patients to see their primary care physician in person or virtually, depending on their needs.

 

It combines the convenience of telehealth with the ability to strengthen recurring relationships with primary care physicians. It also can help provide a medical home for patients who have no primary care physician, either due to lack of access or lack of engagement.

 

The emergence of virtual primary care stems from the recognition that the traditional primary care model doesn't work well for many patients.

 

Access to care remains a major issue for many patients, due to geographical constraints and a growing shortage of primary care physicians, which has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

 

Do Patients Want it?

Patients are receptive. A recent Amwell survey shows consumers want a virtual approach to primary care –

• Most consumers (77%) would prefer to see their existing primary care provider via video.
• 25% of consumers are willing to switch providers to get it.
• 80% saying they would prefer to see the same primary care physician regularly via virtual care.

 

Can virtual primary care provide a simple, seamless care experience? How are patients supported throughout the care process?

 

The best virtual primary care programs are well coordinated and enable a seamless care experience with the ability to transition patients between in-person and virtual care settings, and to various specialties or allied care providers as needed.

 

In this way the care is holistic and the patient journey is clear and simple.

 

Data sharing is an important part of creating a highly coordinated and seamless care experience. Records from all visits should be available to all providers on the telehealth platform across specialties and should be shared with the primary care physician in brick and mortar if one exists. This interoperability improves care and improves the referral and transition process.

 

To ensure patients are supported, virtual primary care programs should include care coordination capabilities.  For example, secure messaging between patients, healthcare professionals and administrative staff can help patients receive quick answers to their questions and ensure that all of their needs are met in a timely fashion, even after a visit has finished.

 

 

Can virtual primary care help with population health?

 

The flexibility of remote access makes it possible for providers to see patients' living conditions, evaluate social determinants of health, and respond in ways that make a deep impact on patients' lives.

 

Providers also can leverage virtual primary care to evaluate medication adherence among patients with diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. When breakdowns in medication adherence are discovered, providers and support staff can work to engage patients in following their treatment plan more closely. This avoids complications that can occur when patients deviate from recommended treatment.

 

Improvements in compliance and ongoing care can be accomplished through use of frequent brief touchpoints, care coordination, nudges and team-based care. Prompts and reminders can be used to reinforce the care plan.

 

With capabilities such as these, virtual primary care positions providers and health plans not only to improve population health, but also to perform well under value-based models of care.

 

More and more, it's clear that the future of care depends on hybrid models of care delivery such as this and I believe we've only just begun to scratch the surface of what's possible with virtual primary care and how it contributes to the continued transformation of healthcare.

 

read the unedited article on the interview at https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/will-virtual-primary-care-become-new-model-healthcare-delivery

 

 

 

Lire l'article complet sur : www.healthcareitnews.com

The pandemic accelerated the humanizing of digital technology – it brought people together at a time when physical distancing was legally mandated in many parts of the world.

One year on, digital solutions – in every sector – have truly come of age. The pandemic has ushered in a new era and meaning for digital tech, as organizations, businesses, and institutions began to function through virtual mediums almost exclusively.

Perhaps most crucially, it demonstrated just how powerful digital interventions can be in last-mile delivery of essential services, particularly in hard-to-reach, underserviced areas, and how they should be leveraged even in times of normalcy without such severe supply chain disruptions.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in health care services. In the early months of lockdown in India, several essential health services were disrupted, and one of the hardest hit was maternal health care.

Childbirth stops for nothing and no one – the ecosystem had to adapt almost overnight to meet the new challenges of maternal health care delivery. For instance, a quality improvement and assurance program called Manyata, which trains health care staff in private maternal care facilities on a set of 16 evidence-based clinical standards for quality and safe care, moved its entire training and certification architecture online to continue providing this crucial capacity-building to under-resourced nursing homes.

And thus, digital interventions came to the rescue.

With the immediate challenges of the pandemic addressed by a plethora of digital innovations, we must retain this momentum to chart a path for realizing India’s Universal Coverage Health goals.

The digital ecosystem offers path-breaking and efficient solutions for accelerating the three pillars of UHC – availability, affordability, and quality – by advancing transformations in health care on both the demand and supply side. 

Digital tech can be a game-changer. In terms of supply, it is enabling reach and scale at levels that were previously unimaginable.

Digital solutions can increase the penetration of quality care mechanisms to remote parts of the country through telemedicine and remote training sessions for health care staff.

On the demand side, tech has tremendous potential to amplify grassroots voices from beneficiaries and patients, both as a means to incorporate their feedback in designing healthcare solutions (or improving existing ones), and encouraging demand for affordable, high-quality care.

However, while leveraging digital interventions for improving healthcare and service delivery is crucial, it cannot be done in silos.

The pandemic has exposed fragilities in the very foundations of our healthcare ecosystem. We must therefore create strong structural support that can enable availability, affordability, and quality to become all-pervasive, by rallying the health ecosystem and incentivizing the participation of both private and public sector. 

Perhaps most crucially, the private sector needs to be integrated into the total health system in order to complement and augment government efforts in strengthening the health care ecosystem. The important role of the private sector was amply reinforced in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the government turned to private sector facilities to help in its frontline response to the virus. So, too, with building a digitally-enabled health ecosystem. 

The visionary National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is poised to revolutionize Indians’ experience of health care access and delivery. However, for the NDHM to achieve scale and speed of impact, extensive private sector involvement is crucial. 

A strengthened and integrated health system must put its weight behind digital interventions if we hope to facilitate a transformation in the months and years ahead. 

read the original , unedited version at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/digital-technology-the-next-frontier-in-healthcare-delivery-in-post-covid-india/