Telemedicine applications for healthcare providers can be seen in how some corporations provide care for their workers. Consider how Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) offers employees healthcare on its campuses on opposite ends of the country.
Cisco, which is self insured, funds all of the company’s healthcare resources including a clinic and pharmacy at its Silicon Valley headquarters. Patients with skin conditions, for example, can take advantage of teledermatology options that give Cisco employees access to skin specialists without needing to leave campus, said Ash Shehata, Cisco’s senior executive director of healthcare business transformation for the Americas. These health IT capabilities mean diagnosis is done through video and the specialist’s opinion is sent to the patient’s primary care provider.
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The clinic at Cisco’s Silicon Valley headquarters also serves the company’s Research Triangle Park, North Carolina campus. And the connections don’t end there. Telemedicine gives Cisco employees access to medical specialists in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The result is faster, more efficient care that traverses distance and time.
“Self-insured employers like CSCO are starting to model some of the behavior you’re going to see in a fully implemented ACO (Accountable Care Organization),” Shehata said.
Shehata described telemedicine applications now and developments he expects for the future during a teleconference in advance of the American Telemedicine Association’s annual conference being held this week in San Jose, California. As healthcare organizations form ACOs, Shehata said this new model of providing care will call for collaborations between payers and providers leading to health IT opportunities. Here are some changes Shehata says we’ll see.
Bring your own device. Mobility is a factor driving health IT changes. Users will expect to be able to access health information from anywhere at anytime on any device. The ability to deliver apps over networks securely will be key for vendors building this new health IT infrastructure. Not only must networks be able to route applications securely, they must also be able to route applications to multiple devices. That’s not limited to mobile devices. Doctor or patient interaction with the network could come from a kiosk.
Borderless network. In a borderless world, the user experience will be tailored to the individual, connections must be secure, a wide array of apps will become available and multiple devices will each be capable of connecting to this network. Some of the mobile capabilities we’ll see in healthcare we already see in other industries. For example, a bank mobile app can allow customers to choose a service with a simple tap. The app displays wait time to connect with customer service. Another tap can ask for customer service to call you back. These capabilities can be adapted to healthcare, Shehata said.
Cloud computing in healthcare. We’re just beginning to scratch the surface in terms of what the cloud can offer. As video capabilities continue to advance, clouds will help create a more connected environment. As an example, Shehata described offerings of the Mayo Clinic. Healthcare information in the cloud can be accessed in real time with a log in. These clouds can become robust mediums that offer users more than a traditional web interface.
Video. As technology to recognize speech and gestures improves, video will offer more ways for healthcare and health information to be delivered. In time, Shehata said avatars could take over tasks handled by people, such as patient registration or scheduling. “As technology gets better and better, the line is blurring between what’s an avatar and what’s a real person,” he said.
