MedCity Influencers, Health Tech

How Covid-19 ignited a proactive healthcare movement

Today, healthcare organizations are looking for a targeted, proven, and personalized approach to managing patient health and they are identifying care management technology as a critical part of the solution.

A decade ago, I lost a loved one to late-stage cancer. Still in her prime, she had her life taken from her by a horrendous disease because it was not diagnosed in time. How could this happen in our age of technology and diagnostics? This event and countless others like it have fueled my passion to make proactive healthcare a reality for our entire country.

Right now, we are experiencing one of the greatest reactive healthcare events in history as we fight Covid-19, which has sadly caught the healthcare industry less than optimally prepared.

While our first responders and healthcare workers are on the front lines, fighting the disease head-on, preventing this from ever happening again is a challenge that still exists. How can payers, providers, and other healthcare organizations detect and address diseases or risk factors earlier, across populations, to improve outcomes while keeping costs down? I propose three key actions that can support the proper integration of proactive healthcare into the current system.

Build on Momentum of Telehealth and Remote Monitoring
Difficult times like these are often catalysts for rapid innovation and policy change. Just look at telehealth. For years, the industry has known telehealth – virtual visits, healthcare apps, connected devices, and other remote technologies – as an effective option for providing timely care to the patient’s location. However, it was not until very recently that we saw telehealth truly go “mainstream,” in significant part because the Covid-19 pandemic forced its widespread adoption.

While telehealth represents a vital step forward, we must learn from prior mistakes. We cannot sit on technological and operational innovations until a global pandemic forces our hand. Now that we have incorporated telehealth more broadly, we need to consider how we deepen the impact of solutions like these to increase their reach. We should consider other innovations that can be applied remotely now that patients have learned to use these services. As new channels enter the healthcare landscape, we need to ensure that care managers are equipped with the incoming data from these sources to have a holistic view into a patient’s health, meaning both clinical and non-clinical factors. We must maintain our focus on this direction and not wait until the next catastrophe to develop the next set of remote healthcare management innovations.

Empower and Embrace Community-based Solutions
Proactive healthcare requires a 360° view of an individual’s health, which entails more than just clinical data. Social determinants of health (SDoH) are economic, social, and lifestyle factors that can comprise as much as 80% of a patient’s wellness.

Covid-19 has exposed huge disparities in SDoH on a national level, especially in patients’ ability to access nutrition, medications, education, and transportation. We must integrate non-clinical factors and incorporate SDoH data into workflows for managing patients’ care gaps.

In today’s hyperconnected world, care managers should know if a patient might miss an upcoming appointment because they no longer have a car and have the option of ordering a ride with a few clicks. Care managers should likewise know when a patient resides in a food desert and have the ability to provide them with a nutritional service.

Some healthcare organizations are struggling to do this on their own, finding that they lack the staff and resources to deliver a truly person-centered experience for every patient. The most successful organizations have recognized that the only solution is to partner with healthcare technology partners that enable intelligent automation. Ultimately, this frees up valuable care team time and helps them place their focus on the right patient at the right time. In turn, this creates a world-class experience for patients, a more proactive healthcare system, and improved outcomes for all stakeholders.

Leverage Technology that Allows Care Managers to Make a Deeper Impact
When we integrate the pool of clinical and social data from disparate technologies and apps, we have a tremendous amount of disparate data that is challenging to normalize and analyze. For proactive healthcare to work, data from across the healthcare system must be aggregated, centralized, and orchestrated, giving care managers a complete view of a member’s health and providing actionable insights to support the greatest impact.

Making this vision a reality is at the heart of next-generation care management technology, which offers powerful rules engines that leverage multi-source data to deliver personalized recommendations and resources. In turn, this empowers care managers to quarterback the care team, engaging with patients outside of the doctor’s office and maintaining a proactive stance for their health.

Most recently, care management technology is being deployed to virtually screen and identify people at risk of Covid-19 or who may have already contracted the virus. This allows care teams to work more efficiently and effectively, while providing the necessary care at the right time. Proactive healthcare is all about anticipating a patient’s needs before they lead to a major healthcare event or an avoidable admission.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Proactive Healthcare is Bright
Even in these challenging times, we can be heartened that proactive healthcare is much closer to becoming the new normal. Today, healthcare organizations are looking for a targeted, proven, and personalized approach to managing patient health and they are identifying care management technology as a critical part of the solution. When integrated into the healthcare system, such technologies make proactive healthcare possible by supporting early detection, improved compliance, and better outcomes.

It should not take a loved one passing or a global pandemic for innovators to come together. We must not stop. The industry must push forward, continue to modernize and embrace new solutions that support proactive healthcare.

 

 


Avatar photo
Avatar photo

Adam Sabloff

Adam Sabloff is the founder and CEO of VirtualHealth, provider of HELIOS, the leading SaaS care management platform, serving nearly 10 million members across the U.S. Prior to VirtualHealth, Sabloff served as VP of Development and Chief Marketing Officer for Midtown Equities, a $7 billion real estate, media and aviation conglomerate, where he also oversaw its technology subsidiary, Midtown Technologies.

This post appears through the MedCity Influencers program. Anyone can publish their perspective on business and innovation in healthcare on MedCity News through MedCity Influencers. Click here to find out how.

Shares1
Shares1