The Potential and Pitfalls of Virtual Care

By Mitchell Fong, VP Virtual Care, Renown Health

Virtual care is the intersection of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and analytics that drives necessary care for patients. The potential impact of virtual care is immense that not only impact the overall health of a patient or community but also have financial, quality, and accessibility impact. The current, rapid evolution of healthcare will change the experience of healthcare for generations to follow. When done effectively, virtual care will create a lasting, scalable impact on healthcare that will improve health for patients all around the world. However, it is important to focus on both the challenges and opportunities to create meaningful and sustainable change. While these changes are developing rapidly, many might be resistant to the speed or direction of these technological progressions. Change management can be very detrimental to any industry when poorly managed. As a sector, virtual care is still immature, so it is critical that reflection drives maturity.

Consistency of technology quality and reliability is fundamental in leveraging the power of virtual care.

User Experience

Prioritizing user experience is essential when any new technology or service is delivered. When done well, virtual care can be beneficial to drive engagement and provide timely care. However, the industry has seen so many different innovations that it can be difficult to create a seamless experience while integrating all these new technologies. With various tools available for patients, it can often be confusing to choose the right tool or even understand how to use each different tool. Training and support is required to help patients navigate technology and given the vast discrepancy in technological literacy, there are varying levels of training and support required. 

The same can be said for the clinical care team and providers. Because these individuals are focused on clinical care, new and unknown technologies can often be a barrier to care, especially if the onboarding is done poorly. Therefore, it is essential that the care team get adequate training prior to implementing new technology and are consistently supported. These steps will help ensure the technology creates the intended experience. 

For virtual care to drive healthcare forward, it is critical that the technology be easy and efficient to use for all, the provider and patient. A poor experience will be a barrier to positive health outcomes and a burden for the users.

Quality and Reliability

Virtual care combines various forms of technology to enhance the delivery of care to patients; however, at times, the technology can lack quality, consistency and reliability. Any technology should be routinely monitored and maintained by technology specialists to verify it is working properly and ensure that this burden does not fall on the patient or care team. The patient and care team should use virtual care to augment their ability to deliver care, but the clinician’s focus should always be on healthcare, not technology. Technology should not be invasive to the ability to focus on health treatment. Instead, it should be seen as a tool to improve care. The intersection of data and medical technology allows for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in ways not historically utilized to create efficiency and personalized healthcare.

The overwhelming amount of new technology in healthcare has also allowed the use of devices that do not meet medical quality or reliability, driving poor experience. It is essential that devices used for virtual care meet or exceed the quality level of those used in direct care. This includes the quality of video and sound, as well as the consistency of monitoring devices. The use of AI is extremely powerful. However, if the data feeding the algorithms are not accurate, the outcome will be compromised. Inaccurate data will lead to inferior quality care and poor reliability for technology, negating the enormous potential to improve healthcare. 

Consistency of technology quality and reliability is fundamental in leveraging the power of virtual care. Healthcare organizations should focus on using medical-grade technology that can operate reliably in order to drive innovation. 

Interoperability & Timely Meaningful Data

Interoperability of different tools is an imperative part of utilizing virtual care to deliver an enhanced experience for patients and providers. As it stands now, many technologies do not create an interoperable experience, leading to friction. This friction limits the ability to use technology effectively as it delays timely and valuable insights. As a result, data loses its value when there is not enough data or when there is so much data that it becomes incomprehensible.

For the patient, data overload can lead to confusion or feeling overwhelmed, making the technology not beneficial. The opposite, a lack of data availability, can lead to mistrust in the system and drive disengagement for patients. There are similar parallels for the care team; an overload of data can lead to care inefficiency, while the lack of available data can lead to poor care. Interoperability of systems is vital to ensure that all the data can be used in combination and that the data and insights are structured in a way that can be quickly and easily understood for effective, timely care.

In summary, to drive virtual care forward and improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare, there must be a focus on both the opportunities and barriers that currently exist. Technology should complement technological and human counterparts with reliability and high quality. When used this way, it will create a positive user experience and allow for patients, care teams, and providers to be empowered by technology and virtual care.