This is an excerpt of the publication below, focusing on the theme above.
For the full version of the original article, please refer to the original publication.
The Telehealth Era Is Just Beginning
Harvard Business Review
by Robert Pearl, Brian Wayling
From the Magazine (May–June 2022)
Excerpt by
Joaquim Cardoso MSc
Health Revolution Institute
Telehealth Revolution Unit
April 16, 2022
What is the context?
- Contrary to what many people think, virtual health care, also known as telemedicine or telehealth, is much more than a cheap digital knockoff of in-person care.
- When used appropriately, it improves patient health, reduces costs, and makes care more equitable and accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
- Its use has soared during the Covid era — and the authors argue that providers around the world should aggressively strive to tap its full potential even after the pandemic abates.
What is the message?
In this article we take an inside look at two of telemedicine’s earliest adopters and most effective users:
- Kaiser Permanente, where one of us (Robert) was CEO; and
- Intermountain Healthcare, where the other (Brian) is an executive director of telehealth services.
For more than a decade these integrated health systems have used virtual care platforms to improve preventive medicine, care coordination, chronic disease management, and affordability for more than 13 million patients.
What are the 5 opportunities?
- Opportunity 1: Reduce Expensive and Unnecessary Trips to the ER
- Opportunity 2: Reverse America’s Chronic-Disease Crisis
- Opportunity 3: Address Disparities in Health Care
- Opportunity 4: Make Specialty Care Faster and More Efficient
- Opportunity 5: Provide Access to the Best Doctors
What is the business case?
Full implementation of five opportunities would:
- improve clinical quality nationwide by 20%,
- increase access to care by 20%, and
- reduce health care spending by 15% to 20%.
Opportunity #3: Address Disparities in Health Care
Telemedicine’s ability to address inequities in access has been demonstrated during the pandemic.
The ubiquitous smartphone, capable of video interactions, can be a lifeline for underserved populations.
- In rural areas with few mental health professionals, for example, Intermountain’s ability to offer virtual visits gives patients prompt access to both emergency and routine care.
- When the pandemic forced the closure of in-person clinics and offices, psychologists and psychiatrists across the United States quickly instituted virtual visits.
- Intermountain delivered 85% of its mental- and behavioral-health visits virtually, including those for drug- and alcohol-related programs.
Telemedicine visits remained popular even after restrictions eased.
Intermountain patients receiving their care virtually reported high satisfaction and were less likely to cancel appointments than were patients who had scheduled in-person visits.
Kaiser Permanente uses video to address disparities in urban areas.
- In 2006 it began rolling out a program across 21 medical centers for pregnant women battling addiction.
- Those who were dependent on buses for transportation or who lacked reliable childcare struggled to attend group counseling programs that met three times a week; fewer than 30% of participants were consistently able to attend.
- But even women without internet access could join virtual sessions with a smartphone, as long as they had at least a 3G connection.
- Perfect attendance rates soared above 80%, dramatically reducing the need for neonatal ICU admissions postdelivery, which can cost $100,000 or more per child.
Perfect attendance rates soared above 80%, dramatically reducing the need for neonatal ICU admissions postdelivery, which can cost $100,000 or more per child.
A version of this article appeared in the May-June 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Originally published at https://hbr.org on May 1, 2022.
