The pandemic has undoubtedly sparked a huge demand for telehealth.According to Publicis Sapient, more than 40% of Americans have actually seen a healthcare provider Digital Living IndexThis trend will continue; 76% of Americans say they plan to use telehealth more or at the same rate even after the pandemic subsides.
What is revolutionary is not the virtual visit itself, but the results it brings. Consumers increasingly expect healthcare to be convenient and responsive, with health information and services readily available and personalized for a seamless experience even when seeing new caregivers. Essentially, patients expect many aspects of digital health to function like the quick transactions they are accustomed to after the rise of online banking and online shopping.
However, healthcare revolves around relationships in a way not found in banking or shopping. Prioritizing convenience while maintaining valuable relationships between patients and healthcare teams is at the heart of the digital transformation of healthcare and will help turn the trend of virtual healthcare into something more complex: “distributed healthcare” where everything can be digitized Done – mostly at home.
The truth is, for years, patients have been telling us what they want from a digital health experience — keep things simple, know who I am, be smart, and connect the dots. You can see how these four elements need an improved experience in transactional engagement, and from there reflect and recreate important healthcare relationships. It also requires data and artificial intelligence to focus and drive the digital health experience.
Here’s what the industry needs to do to make it happen.
Create and maintain relationships with data
Using data and digital clinical (and non-clinical) histories can build stronger relationships with patients because they will feel that care providers understand them and that all parties providing care are aligned. Interacting with a healthcare provider’s digital record means subsequent visits, even with different physicians, do not require the patient to repeat the information from the first visit. Done right, it doesn’t matter who the patient sees (online or in person) as long as all care providers have the patient’s medical information. This is the basis for the expected model of collective nursing practice, where different care providers, in different roles, deliver care as a team, with the patient at the center.
Care providers must also embrace artificial intelligence, including machine learning, to help medical professionals quickly gain insights from data that they can use when communicating with and treating patients. AI is fundamental to creating more personalized digital experiences. Take the relatively simple example of personalized messaging, an area where other industries have leveraged sophisticated algorithms with good results; but in healthcare patients, treatment messages are rarely personalized and time-sensitive Yes, depending on their specific situation, medical history, or how and when they can best use the information.
Create an easy-to-use platform
Consumers are increasingly looking for convenient medical services. Publicis Sapient’s Digital Living Index found that a lack of telehealth options was the third most common reason for delays in care, after concerns over cost and Covid-19 exposure. It’s important to gain trading basics, such as being able to choose who treats you, a convenient time, and appointments. However, that’s not enough; today’s consumers want to do everything in one place, from making appointments to reviewing their medical records to conducting virtual visits. More healthcare providers need to adopt a platform mindset to meet these consumer expectations.
For a long time, the health world has told itself that it is too hard to meet consumer expectations, but that era has passed, and in this platform world, we are starting to see changes.
From a transactional point of view, Northwestern Medicine An integrated communication platform is being provided, with chatbots guiding live agents on their applications if needed. While this is common in banking or retail, it’s less common in healthcare, forcing patients to jump from apps to emails to phone calls.
Practice needs to be restructured for distributed care
Healthcare practices need to reorganize where and how they work to create effective digital-first experiences. As we’ve seen in other industries, the reality is mixed, as consumers have grown accustomed to digital-first and hybrid services, such as ordering items for curbside pickup. To create a similar experience in healthcare, medical practices must acknowledge that phone calls or visits to primary care clinics are no longer the only primary starting point for healthcare.
a doctor Pioneered digital-first healthcare, connected to their clinics and a large network of hospitals like Mount Sinai. But their digital-first approach comes by reimagining different provider roles, from new types of digital administrators to nurses in first-stage roles, and using doctors in a more collaborative way. This means they have rethought their brick-and-mortar clinics, focusing more on functions like exams and blood draws, drastically reducing wait times, an issue that is often already explored through digital channels. This means that patient communication takes place digitally, i.e. within hours; but it also happens in a more cohesive way, enabling them to provide personal care in a digital space.
Meanwhile, health is coming home. Or more specifically, back home. Telemetry tools, such as connected stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs, as well as mobile phone apps, make it easier to monitor conditions in the home without the need for in-person visits.
The platform will allow remote patient data to be collected and fed into the workflow of a clinic or hospital, enabling AI programs as well as human healthcare professionals to access and analyze this data. The same platform should allow medical staff to communicate with colleagues and patients.Mayo Clinic is leading the way in these initiatives, recently launching light healtha joint venture with startup Commure to collect data from remote diagnostic tools and integrate it into AI-based algorithms and clinic workflows.
Innovation depends on regulatory changes
Similar to what we have seen in the financial industry with the rise of digital banking, changing regulations in the healthcare industry, many of which emerged as temporary emergency measures during the pandemic, have led to rapid innovation. Chief among these changes are U.S. insurers and Medicaid, which offer billing codes and reimbursements for virtual visits. In order to continue to encourage the digital health experience the industry needs, these changes need to become permanent and more widespread. On the data side, we have seen a relaxation of data sharing rules to meet the challenges of Covid and we now need strong data governance guidelines to protect and benefit current and future patients. This will be another necessary step towards realizing the future of distributed care.
Covid and these regulatory changes have made it clear that innovation in healthcare happens when it is needed. Going backwards from here is difficult; the proverbial genie has been taken out of the bottle, and patients can now experience how healthcare works with the same convenience and ownership as banking, traveling, shopping, or watching TV. To continue to meet patient needs and expectations, the industry should ensure that increased convenience and reliance on data also help improve the underlying relationship between patients and caregivers. Only then can we deliver on the promise of distributed care.
Image: Evgeny Gromov, Getty Images
