Telemedicine vendors offering acute care services risk undermining healthcare, just as charter schools have impacted public education and Fed Ex has competed with the U.S. Postal Service.
Mass General neurologist Dr. Lee Schwamm made the point following a panel discussion on challenges health systems experience implementing telemedicine at the iHT2 Health IT Summit this week in Boston.
“Urgent care should be part of an integrated delivery network,” said Schwamm, who is also the director of telestroke services at Mass General.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
He added that telemedicine companies risk creating their own information silos because they don’t do an adequate job of ensuring these patient-physician interactions get passed along to patients primary care physicians and aren’t designed with follow-up care in mind. They are also attracting dissatisfied physicians who want to set their own work hours rather than the long hours they currently work.
“It destroys the profession,” he said, adding that it is attracting wealthier patients prepared to pay out of pocket for these services.
“It’s pulling dollars out of the healthcare system that are desperately needed to care for poorer patients.”
It’s an interesting point and one that I’ve never heard made before. It reminds me of concerns that have been voiced about retail clinics run by drugstores, but at least a couple have expressed interest in aligning themselves with physician practices.
BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem
Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.
At the same time, telemedicine companies aren’t new, and they’ve resonated with people who want healthcare on their terms — when it’s convenient for them, preferably from the comfort of their homes and when they need it.
As hospitals ramp up their telemedicine services, it seems like we are on track to have a “beat them or join them” moment where telemedicine vendors align themselves more closely to health systems or consolidate and become larger.
It will be interesting to see how telemedicine businesses with a direct to consumer business model heed these concerns.
