Why should telemedicine play a central role in bridging the specialist shortage?

There is a shortage of all physicians across the United States, but the shortage is felt most strongly with specialists.

Access to needed medical specialists – especially timely access – is hard to come by in large urban areas, but can be nearly impossible in rural communities.

Virtual care has proved that it can be of great help in connecting patients to the right specialists in a timely manner.

Julian Flannery is the founder and CEO of Sammas Global, a telehealth technology and services company focused on specialty care. We interviewed him to discuss the state of specialty care in the United States, how virtual specialty care can help address specialty care challenges, and how one solution is for employers providing specialty care through virtual care. .

Flannery also describes a real example of special care provided by his company through an employer, and its consequences.

Q. What is the state of specialty care in the United States today? What challenges does this pose?

One. Specialty care is where the cost and complexity in health care reside. For patients, unanswered questions, receiving a new diagnosis or managing an existing chronic condition present real challenges that create stress, confusion, and real risks to health and financial well-being.

Often they don’t know where to go, who to see, what is covered by insurance, and what tests or medical records to obtain. Most importantly, they face a serious problem of access, where it can take weeks or months to see someone – and that specialist may be the right doctor or have the necessary expertise for their condition and medical history. There is no guarantee.

Today, many patients are lost in the maze of the American healthcare system – Their physical and mental health is being affected, creating redundancies and driving up exorbitant costs.

Long waiting times and lack of access The challenges are compounded by the fact that there are fewer specialists in any given community, while physician shortages persist and patient care takes time due to large administrative responsibilities.

Most top experts are concentrated at academic medical centers or large health systems, with geographic barriers limiting access to their expertise for a significant portion of the US population.

From the expert’s point of view, they want their expertise to help more people, answer more questions, develop more treatments, and reconnect with patients on a personal level. They want to use their expertise to do what they first envisioned in medical school – helping people.

The good news is that the new virtual world in medicine can create the ability to increase efficiency and specialist expertise and cross geographic boundaries. For patients, accelerating access to leading medical expertise leads to better, more cost-effective health outcomes and, if done right, improves the health care experience for both patients and specialists.

Q. How can virtual specialty care help address these challenges?

One. Advances in technology have dramatically changed the landscape of healthcare delivery, from the delivery of pharmaceutical and diagnostic services via telemedicine to virtual care, which includes patient guidance and education, remote monitoring, Covers a wide range of health services such as longitudinal care management and access. Health information and resources.

Historically, virtual care technology was used for primary and urgent care. More recently, it has been deployed to support narrowly focused, situation-specific point solutions or point-in-time solutions such as second opinions.

Looking forward, virtual specialty care can be used to address patient questions and care in a longitudinal manner across the entire health journey – from allergies to migraines and more complex conditions like ALS and cancer.

Simple and elegant virtual specialty-care technology designed for specialists can bring real value to patients, health systems, and specialists. In today’s scenario, video medium is a commodity, hence there is a need for innovative business models to further enable virtual specialized care.

Using a model that provides real value to experts and allows them to enhance their expertise will win the day. For patients, models that can attract high-quality specialists and deep and diverse provider networks will also be extremely valuable. Some of the benefits of virtual specialty care include:

• Support access across geographic boundaries. A virtual medium coupled with a network of leading, high-quality experts saves time connecting to an expert, and breaks down geographic boundaries by connecting with experts virtually. Not only does this create a better physician and member experience, but it also reduces the need for costly travel and time away from work with a way to get faster answers and forwards.

• Accelerate access to leading physicians. Specialists and primary care providers face competitive pressures when trying to help and reach their patients, and they worry about people who don’t come to their appointments as much as they do about those who do. are focused on those who come. Innovative models that allow physicians to answer questions from patients, families and other members of the health care system prove to be most successful at creating the right kind of experience for patients and sustainable outcomes.

• Create a quality healthcare experience with experts. In the virtual specialty care environment, experts spend approximately one hour with patients, and focus on the value these experts can provide in leisurely, in-depth conversations. The physicians we work with regularly tell us about the ability to see a patient in their home environment and the ability to spend the necessary time with each patient and remind them that they first went to medical school. Why did I go Spending more time with specialists informs patients and instills confidence in them, which helps in better decision making. And experts find the experience satisfactory.

• Provide clear results and impact on medical costs. Rapid access to expert expertise resulted in changes in everything from medicine to treatment methods. Plus, quick and convenient access to specialists reduces unnecessary emergency room and other in-person visits, resulting in savings on medical costs.

Virtual specialty care technology continues to develop and be used for providers in health systems, health plans and primary care practices to answer their questions that help them guide patient care.

With a differentiated escalation model tied to the complexity of a patient case, primary care physicians and other physicians can participate in consultations ranging from dynamic, text-based e-consults for streamlined questions to curbside or e-consultations for more involved patient care questions. Expert consultation included.

Q. Your company specializes in providing specialized care to employers through Virtual Care. What’s the deal with employers here? And how is it different from patients seeking virtual care through a provider organization instead of an employer?

One. In a recent survey conducted by Summus, large employers are managing an average of 46 different benefits vendors and more than 50 situation-specific solutions. This plethora of point solutions is challenging for HR teams to manage and measure, and creates confusion for employees about which benefits to use and when.

As a result, more than 75% of HR and benefits leaders are looking to strengthen their benefits offerings over the next 12 months.

Unlike point solutions, virtual specialty care serves as the clinical front door to health care, accelerating access to high-quality medical expertise across all health concerns and conditions and contributing to a healthier, more productive workforce. Is.

Q. Please describe a real example of special care provided by your company through an employer and its consequences.

One. The University of Notre Dame offers Samus’ virtual specialty care platform as part of its employee health benefits package, and the human resources department receives proactive emails from employees on a weekly basis asking them to access high-quality care. Give thanks.

The university reported that SAMUS saved Notre Dame staff 3,231 hours of time that would otherwise have been spent finding and traveling to experts.

Notre Dame staff shared sentiments about their experience using Samus, including:

• “This is the first doctor in three years that we feel has got us on the right track.”

• “Everyone has been helpful and responsive.”

• “Sammas has been a lifesaver since my diagnosis. There is no one in this area who has the expertise to treat me.”

Virtual specialty care and access to the right, high-quality specialist can markedly improve patients’ lives and address major issues in healthcare today.

Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him at: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.