The United States is known for its accessibility to healthcare. But even among patients who do have access in the traditional sense — with good health insurance and a large number of doctors in their area — there are many who are dissatisfied with the quality of care and don’t even trust their providers.
In an increasingly resource-constrained system, patients feel they are treat like numbersunable to truly advocate for their needs in ongoing dating 18 minutes on average. This is shown in the customer experience data, Net Promoter Score of traditional healthcare providers average only 9 out of 100 — meaning a large percentage of patients are not interested or satisfied with the current system.
Clearly, patients not only need access to more basic care, they also want higher quality care. As telemedicine has become an essential part of the healthcare system, focusing on accessibility is important, but so is the quality of care. When digital health platforms are thoughtful, innovative, and focused on delivering quality care, they can provide a more inspiring vision for the future of healthcare.
Continuous interaction leads to better results
Telehealth-centric digital health models allow patients more seamless access to their providers, which can lead to better outcomes — especially when trying to find treatments for chronic rather than acute problems.
When treating ongoing health challenges, physicians are more likely to find the right treatment if they have ongoing data: What exactly does a patient experience? when? What other factors were at play at that moment? How effective is the treatment? are there any side effects? Even if patients can see an in-person provider regularly, it can be difficult for them to remember and communicate all of this information within a limited appointment time. During what may be the most difficult times in a patient’s life, the traditional healthcare system requires them to quarterback their own care.
The tech-driven nature of digital health platforms alleviates this: patients can document their experiences over time, and physicians can easily access vast amounts of patient data to iterate treatment plans and create truly tailored approaches. With ongoing communication, patients can easily communicate with their providers—rather than rushing to find a doctor when a problem arises.
Guide patients to the specialist they need
Even if patients are able to track and communicate their symptoms, they may struggle to find the right doctor to meet their needs.
For example, many migraine sufferers never even get a proper diagnosis from their doctor, let alone a successful plan to free them from the pain. That’s partly because of the lack of traditional routes — but also because migraine sufferers may never know they can reach a specialist. They may not be aware that affordable, accessible, expert-level care exists.
With digital health, we can put more power in the hands of patients to explore different pathways of care, provide an extensive network of different types of physicians, and tools to help direct patients to the best specialists based on their symptoms. Ultimately, this means they can get the best treatment faster.
A more integrated approach to healthcare
Ultimately, digital health allows for a more holistic approach to care. Having a more centralized digital record could make it easier for patients to transition between multiple specialists to meet different health needs, and for physicians to tailor their approach based on everything in the patient record.
recognize this 85% With health care spending to treat chronic conditions, many of which are comorbidities, providers must prioritize comprehensive infrastructure that centers the patient, not the disease, and allows them to receive care during the diagnosis process. Patients need to be able to transition seamlessly between different providers and modalities, and have easy access to all their information in one place. Digital health makes this seamless transition possible. But providers must also work with patients to understand where they perceive gaps in care and how to fill that gap quickly and equitably with a high standard of care. All of this ultimately leads to a significant improvement in the quality of patient care—including an increase in the healthcare provider’s Net Promoter Score.
Healthcare costs are clearly an issue that needs to be addressed through major system change. In the long run, I do believe that telehealth will reduce costs by providing better preventive care and treatment for chronic conditions, thereby preventing more expensive acute care in the future. But while we wait for data to arrive, it’s important to recognize the other benefits digital health offers, helping us meet patients where they are and provide them with quality care when they need it. To me, this is the real promise of digital health.
Photo: sdecoret, Getty Images
