RISE IN TELEMEDCINE, REMOTE CARE (RPM), DATA COLLECTION DURING PANDEMIC

The definition of summertime has changed from talks of summer vacations to shelter in place and social distancing and making sure we are properly masked and protected. Thoughts of open concerts and beaches are being replaced with home repair projects and making sure supplies of essential items are kept in stock. Major do it yourself project stores like Home Depot and Lowes are out of merchandise and supplies including lumber are in short supplies.

?People are afraid of coming into a hospital or doctor’s office for what had been a few months ago, a routine event. At different times in life, there are events that become markers that everyone recognizes changed things to come. Fall of Berlin wall, Russian Empire collapse, 9/11?come to mind and the impact those events had on the world at the time. Now we have COVID-19 that will change the way all business, social interacting, and healthcare is delivered and viewed for decades to come. The delivery of healthcare will never be the same. Telemedicine has rose in popularity and lots of small internist have setup remote shops using third party telemedicine apps and website to deliver cheap care. As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated, the healthcare system strained to respond appropriately. The dilemma for private practices was less about emergency care and more about how to continue providing services for patients when clinic doors were suddenly closed to in-person routine visits. New research illuminates bright spots and areas for improvement that make telemedicine attractive, productive, and profitable for both providers and patients. Here’s what we’ve uncovered:

·???????15% of all visits were done virtually

·???????89% of patient feedback was positive

·???????76% of patients would recommend telemedicine to a friend

Twenty-five years ago, we talked in futuristic terms of collecting data on patients. Collecting data from and on behalf of medical patients is a critical component of healthcare, particularly when that?data needs to be analyzed?to provide the best and most proper care.

The Internet has become a vast resource for healthcare organizations through the creation of digitized disease registries, which can process more data quickly and provide timely results to expedite treatment.

Providers large and small need to have a plan in place not only for gathering but interpreting the data that’s collected.

This includes identifying each step in the process, from determining what data is collected to who is responsible for doing that, as well as when and where data will be gathered. Smaller clinics in less-populated areas with fewer resources also will need to account for how such tasks can be accomplished with fewer staff and less free time for workers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Information Technology division recommends that rural providers in particular talk to state health officials and quality improvement organizations to see about additional funding and support.

Today we talk about the updates to the EMRs. Fifteen years ago, we were talking about how cool it would be if we carry a PC in something small like a cell phone. Major technological strides were made. Many have spoken about the future changes that were coming with telehealth, but I believe most of us found a massive kick start with the COVID-19 crisis.

Virtual care is now a more common phrase with nearly every household. In a matter of a few short weeks, the federal government managed to change the rules on payment for telehealth visits, relax the guidelines on privacy, and mount a tremendous funding effort to build out virtual health programs around the country. The nature and reasons for an office visit have now changed and will forevermore. The issuance and fulfillment of prescriptions have changed for some pharmaceutical providers. The Pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the healthcare delivery model that transcends office visits, clinic operations, hospital stays, and surgical procedures.

For those who were expecting changes to be years away, found themselves scrambling as patient census and office visits dropped, along with elective surgeries were put on hold. Hospitals soon found themselves struggling as the offerings they relied upon to cover their costs, such as elective surgeries and diagnostic testing, were being put on hold. Individuals with significant illnesses were reluctant to come for care for fear of being exposed to something worse.

Despite the best efforts of clinicians, some hospital readmissions are necessary and unavoidable. A cardiac patient may develop fluid around his or her heart, or infection could set in at a surgical.

It’s why the organization relies on?remote patient monitoring?(RPM) and?telehealth solutions?to reduce readmissions and to improve outcomes. When deemed ready, some patients are sent home with?wearable tools that track metrics?such as blood pressure, weight, and oxygen saturation. Combined with?videoconferencing, the technology offers a way to keep tabs from afar.

Such continuity of care helps save time and avoid confusion (another provider’s electronic health record platform?could be from a different vendor and lack timely context, for example). And if concerns are detected virtually in the days ahead, the original providers can bring patients back for expedited consultations and treatment, potentially preventing complications.

As the world prepares to return from the edge, new challenges are appearing on the horizon. Will big clinics be needed? Will the office space be necessary? Will the healthcare model now move from treatment to prevention? Many pundits are now asking, who is going to be the trusted provider of those services—will it continue to be their family physician, or will it become Amazon, Apple or Goggle, or something not yet seen in the marketplace? Will the federal government release other restrictions such as requiring prescriptions from physicians?

For the past few weeks, our world has been locked on science and technology, but soon we will be talking about what to do to keep this from happening in the fall, if not ever again, and how to be better prepared. There will likely be two different approaches where one group will want to bring technology such as new vaccines, new applications to diagnosis, new at-home devices for testing, and monitoring. There will be another group that will focus on process and delivery models. The language of different delivery models, effective response and preventive healthcare models will become a common language in the discussions both on a professional as well as news media circles.

What many of us have come to realize is that we already have technology options that are great for responses to critical events. We have proven that industry can leapfrog on the development of new technologies, but the mass manufacturing of such solutions still takes time. ??It is time to think differently about what we already have and how we can put it in use. It is time to take advantage of all that has been accomplished in the last ten to fifteen years. Now is the time to make that difference happen. We’re eventually going to need data science and artificial intelligence to sort out some of the meaning behind the vital signs.

?

?