Future of virtual care conference May 20 podcast

Takeaways: From clinic-to-home innovations; higher bar for in-office visits; unbundling of care

This week we kickstarted the discussion around the Future of Virtual Care with Element Science and LRVHealth. To join us for the next virtual conferences register.

By registering, you get access to 2 more breakout sessions on June 10, and June 24 and to our main event on July 1. Check out the agenda. 

Speakers: Uday Kumar (Founder, President & CEO, Element Science), Ann Mond Johnson (CEO of American Telemedicine Association), Keith J. Figlioli (Senior Healthcare Executive & Healthcare Venture Capital, LRVHealth); Hosts: Bambi Francisco Roizen (Founder & CEO, Vator), Archana Dubey (Global Medical Director, HP Health Centers, HP)

Thanks to our sponsors: UCSF Health Hub, HP, Avison Young, Advsr,  Scrubbed, and Stratpoint.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Some takeaways:

Innovation is going from clinic-to-home -- Health systems see 80 percent of revenue in outpatient care. With COVID, and these higher-margin revenue services impacted, the question is how is the clinic footprint changed? We need to start thinking clinic-to-home.

Which regulatory changes will become permanent? -- There's been 70 regulatory changes, 15 just in telehealth. Question is: What sticks? CMS is the most flexible on telehealth, but will payers bend?  

There will be a higher bar for in-office visits -- Going to the clinic used to be partially social, now you go in only if you have to because people will be reluctant to go. More check-ups will be done through tools and virtually. But the costs will need to be evaluated. A provider shouldn't get on a call with a patient and after just 10 minutes charge them hundreds of dollars.

Unbundling of diseases and not one-size-fits-all solutions -- Element Science created a wearable defibrillator (still going through clinical trials) to address the No. 1 cause of death in the US - sudden cardiac arrest. There are 350k-450k deaths annually, but the majority of people who have these attacks are asymptomatic. This leaves wide open, how do you assess risk and who gets one of these? According to Uday, it's an analysis of a certain population that may have had a heart attack and have accompanying conditions, such as kidney dysfunctions, anything that increases the risk of someone dying one to three months. The health system needs to look at smaller, higher pre-test probability groups that can receive benefit. For example, only one in three implantable defibrillators are in use, but all three are paid for.