Patient and Physician Inclusion is Key to Telehealth’s Growth

Out of the darkness, comes light.
 
Telehealth has been the saving grace of the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling patients and physicians to safely access and deliver healthcare amid strict lockdowns and rampant waves of infection. Though its growth slowed considerably this year, telehealth is nevertheless a permanent fixture in the medical field.

Telehealth utilization is 38 times higher now than it was before the pandemic, McKinsey & Company data indicates, and both consumer and provider attitudes toward remote care have improved as well. After initially spiking to more than 32 percent of office and outpatient visits in April 2020, telehealth utilization currently ranges between 13 percent and 17 percent across all specialties, the management consulting firm reported in July.

“Telehealth appears poised to stay a robust option for care,” McKinsey’s article stated. “Strong continued uptake, favorable consumer perception, the regulatory environment, and strong investment into this space are all contributing to this rate of adoption.”
 
Yet challenges threaten to prevent telehealth from realizing its full potential. The difficulties include the need for better data integration and improved data flows, equity concerns, large-scale access (high-speed broadband internet is not available in many rural areas), patient privacy, reimbursement, and professional licensing, among others.
 
MPO’s feature “Face to (Virtual) Face” explores the barriers telehealth must overcome to ensure its long-term growth, and spotlights some of the virtual tools available to doctors and patients. Paul Chaffin, President of Phillips-Medisize, a Molex company, was among the handful of industry experts interviewed for the story. His full input is provided in the following Q&A.
 

Michael Barbella: There are some clinical elements related to healthcare that telehealth cannot help with. What diseases/conditions and what specific aspects of medicine can telehealth help most with? Conversely, are there instances in which telehealth is not a preferred solution?   
Paul Chaffin: We see many areas in which telehealth will have a significant and positive impact to patient health. Chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, respiratory illnesses, long-haul COVID and COVID complications, and mental health are areas that can be monitored and potentially better managed through a telehealth format. In fact, for many of these, the ability to use telehealth will likely improve patient outcomes by removing barriers to treatment, providing real-time monitoring, and improving medication adherence. Obviously, for acute infections and emergencies, it’s best to see your doctor in person.
 
Barbella: Many regulatory barriers were eased during COVID-19 to allow for the greater spread and use of telehealth services. What needs to be done from the regulatory and policy perspectives to maintain the momentum? 
Chaffin: Barriers were eased temporarily and on an emergency basis, through the duration of the pandemic. However, these emergency measures will, in certain situations, end once the pandemic is declared over. To ensure continuity in telehealth services, regulators must adopt permanent rule changes. Policymakers can facilitate that by introducing legislation to allow telehealth to continue once the pandemic is over. I’m optimistic this will happen as I believe the pandemic proved the value of many telehealth services.
 
Barbella: What specific barriers and/or challenges will make it difficult for telehealth services to continue its momentum in the post-pandemic world? How can these challenges be overcome? 
Chaffin: The ability to seamlessly and reliably interface with a patient using the technology platforms offered by service providers is one barrier physicians face, making it more difficult to deliver effective telehealthcare. In addition, studies have reported that over 80 percent of physicians report less access to patient adherence to medication regimens than they feel is needed to make proactive treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes. The ability of physicians to leverage connected health platforms to better monitor patient care is a critical means of overcoming these challenges.
 
Barbella: What should hospitals and health systems know before they invest in telehealth technologies? What considerations must be taken into account? 
Chaffin: Patients rely on privacy in their medical care; this isn’t new to hospitals and health systems. However, when adopting telehealth technologies, in addition to expecting reliable and intuitive technology for interfacing with their medical care providers, patients expect those technologies to be absolutely secure. As hospitals and health systems explore telehealth, these considerations should be foremost in their decision-making process before investing in a particular technology.
 
Barbella: What specific aspects of telehealth services must be improved upon in order for the technology to continue to grow after the pandemic? 
Chaffin: Telehealth has seen robust growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. To maintain that growth, though, there are specific improvements to telehealth services that we see as key to encouraging everyone in the healthcare ecosystem, including patients and physicians and healthcare payers, to continue using and adopting this technology. For example, we see a growing need to establish remote monitoring of patient vitals and monitor patient medication adherence as key areas of improvement that physicians are seeking. It will also be increasingly important to link multiple digital data sources to enable a complete picture for providers. On the patient side, intuitive and seamless telehealth communication platforms are critical to continued patient use and telehealth adoption.
  
Barbella: With more than 80 percent of hospital IT systems running on outdated software when the pandemic hit, cybersecurity will clearly play a key role in maintaining the adoption of telehealth services. How realistic is it to expect that hospitals will be able to update their IT systems to support telehealth services? 
Chaffin: Keeping software updated is a constant challenge in every market, but especially in healthcare and in light of the shift we saw toward telehealth. But hospitals and health systems recognize the need to secure patient data, not just as a customer service feature, but to comply with HIPPA. While updating IT systems to better support telehealth services is a unique challenge in 2021, we see it as realistic to expect hospitals and health systems to dedicate resources to meet this challenge.
 
Barbella: How will companies be able to convince patients to continue using telehealth services for their care when they regain the option of visiting a care provider in person? Why should patients continue using telehealth services when they can see a doctor in person? 
Chaffin: Patients like the convenience, safety, and privacy of meeting with their care teams in the privacy of their own home. Moreover, just in the U.S., Millennials represent our largest generation. This entire cohort is native to a digital world and is likely to continue with telehealth without much prompting or encouragement.  We see similar trends with the younger half of Gen X. Where we see the need to convince patients to continue using telehealth will be in older Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. These groups will need to be convinced of the ability of telehealth to provide equal or better care than in-clinic appointments, the security of their telehealth appointments during and after session, and the ease of having telehealth appointments in a simple format.
 
Barbella: What role will reimbursement play in telehealth’s continued momentum post-pandemic? 
Chaffin: Reimbursement will play a critical role in the momentum of telehealth. If reimbursements for telehealth appointments are not on par with that offered for in-clinic appointments, patients are unlikely to continue widespread use of telehealth. Of course, if reimbursement is higher than that of in-person appointments, it will likely encourage greater adoption of this format for providing medical care.