Telehealth Expected to Dominate Patient Care

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) latest Future of Healthcare Survey explored the pandemic’s impact on healthcare technology, finding that 89% of IT decision makers (ITDMs) have made investing in new technology a priority for their organization.

HPE surveyed 400 healthcare IT decision-makers and patient-facing clinicians throughout the US and UK, each working at organizations with over 500 employees.

Clinician Findings

  • 76% of clinicians believe telehealth will soon account for a majority of patient care
  • 68% agreed they frequently have technology issues in delivering telehealth
  • 82% believe medical devices will have the largest tech impact in the next 5 years

IT Decision Maker Findings

  • 85% of ITDMs say “IT modernization” is their largest IT investment priority
  • 59% say “innovation” is their largest IT investment priority
  • 72% cited IT security as a main concern when moving data to the cloud

Although HPE naturally recommends its own GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform as the optimal answer to each of these problems, the clinician findings highlight that technology’s evolving role in healthcare is a bigger than a single solution, and one that is only expected to get bigger from here.

Tia Raises $100M for Hybrid Women’s Care

Women’s healthcare company Tia recently closed a $100m Series B funding round that will help to scale its “whole-woman, whole-life” model to over 100k women by 2023.

Just two years after seeing its first patient, Tia now has $132m in total funding for its hybrid care model that operates physical clinics in Los Angeles and New York, as well as virtual care in Phoenix.

  • Tia’s hybrid approach combines primary care, mental health, gynecology, and acupuncture to offer women seamless care coordination throughout their entire lives. Tia claims that its proprietary software and care coordination teams can deliver care for 40% less than traditional primary care practices.
  • Tia partners with health systems to provide an integrated inpatient/outpatient experience, creating better care continuity around key periods such as pregnancies. These partnerships also allow Tia members to access specialty care not offered at its clinics, like obstetrics.

According to Tia, women control more than 80% of the US’ $3.6t annual healthcare spend, yet female patients have been repeatedly misunderstood and underserved. Investors have taken notice, with Tia’s Series B arriving within a few week’s of Maven Clinic becoming the sector’s first unicorn with over $1b funding. 

Industry Impact

Up until recently, women’s healthcare has largely been fragmented by body part or life stage, creating an ineffective model that rarely supports holistic care. 

Tia believes its “anti-fragmentation approach” is the solution, driving better outcomes by replacing transactional, condition-based healthcare with relationship-based care that can cater to women throughout their whole lives.

Second Opinions for Anthem Members

Anthem recently signed on with The Clinic to begin offering its members easy access to virtual second opinions. 

  • The Clinic began in 2019 as a joint venture from Amwell and Cleveland Clinic that provides virtual care and digital health records to payers, providers, and patients. The service combines Amwell’s telehealth services with patient support from Cleveland Clinic’s 3,500 physicians.
  • Second opinions are expected to be a $7b market by 2024 (up from $2.7b in 2019), according to research from both companies. Cleveland Clinic studies have shown that second opinions result in a modified treatment plan in 72% of reassessments, as well as a change in diagnosis for 28% of life-altering cases.

Looking Ahead

Anthem is initially making the second opinion service available to its large employer clients, with the potential to expand to smaller employers going forward.

The Clinic CEO Frank McGillin signalled that more is on the way for the partnership, saying that the second opinion services are “just the start of our work with Anthem.” The Clinic anticipates a continued increase in demand for routine expert second opinions when dealing with life-changing health conditions.

Lyra Expands Into New Mental Health Conditions

Mental health benefits provider Lyra Health recently announced a trio of new solutions designed to address complex conditions such as alcohol use disorder and suicidality.

Lyra is seeking to effectively support the employees often overlooked by traditional health plans, such as those with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

The new offerings will launch in early 2022 and include:

  • Lyra Reset addresses problematic alcohol use through virtual therapy, group sessions, symptom assessments, peer support, and medication. Lyra Reset promotes a durable recovery by providing resources for the entire family.
  • Lyra Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Suicidality combines virtual therapy sessions with therapist-prescribed skill-building lessons to help patients decrease suicidal thoughts.
  • Lyra Concierge provides personalized support for children, adolescents, and adults who need help accessing specialized mental health support or rehabilitation facilities.

The Trend

Many new digital mental health companies are focusing primarily on patients suffering from depression and anxiety, a large market given the pandemic-fueled climb in mental health disorders. 

However, as these companies begin to mature (Lyra has raised $680m and is valued at $4.2b), many will expand into other serious conditions.

This trend has the potential to help patients find specialized care that fits their needs, while also supporting employers looking to maintain a healthy and productive workforce.

The Proof is in the Patients, Trinity Health RPM

A recent article from HealthcareITNews explored the benefits of remote patient monitoring programs (RPM) by highlighting the success of Trinity Health’s recently deployed system.

In 2017, Trinity Health was feeling the weight of its scale, with a 16% readmission rate for its high-risk Medicare population across 94 hospitals in 24 states. The health system was beginning its transition to a value-based care model and seeking to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs by lowering its readmission rate to single digits.

To accomplish this, Trinity Health created a plan to avoid preventable hospitalizations through a dual-approach RPM program:

  • Home Care Connect – For skilled home care patients that require persistent attention, Home Care Connect utilized Vivify Health’s connected care platform to offer chronic-condition pathways and a home care kit that addresses diagnosis-specific needs. Patients were provided an LTE-equipped tablet and monitoring devices including a pulse oximeter and blood pressure cuff.
  • Virtual Care Center – Patients who did not meet skilled home care eligibility were given access to Trinity Health’s Virtual Care Center, which connects patients to remote care services through an online portal.

Results

Following the RPM program’s month-long pilot with 55 patients, only a single patient was readmitted to the hospital, giving Trinity Health the confidence to expand the program nationally. Over the next year, readmissions dropped from 16% to 6%, leading to not only lower costs, but also to an increase in CMS incentives.

Trinity Health attributes the success of its RPM program to its user-friendly interface and a strong educational component, driven by the tablet’s ability to provide voice instructions and answer condition-specific questions.

For the Home Care Connect program, the proof is in the patients, with compliance and satisfaction numbers remaining high at 85% and 96%, respectively.

K Health Acquires Trusst, Sets Sights on Mental Health

Digital primary care provider K Health announced its acquisition of text-based therapy app Trusst for an undisclosed sum, expanding its services into the rapidly growing online mental health arena.

  • Trusst offers a proprietary mobile platform that has the look and feel of regular text chats, adding a layer of familiarity to sensitive conversations with a therapist. To use the service, patients download the Trusst app and fill out a short questionnaire about their symptoms before being connected to a licensed therapist.
  • K Health provides a public symptom checker that funnels users into an AI-guided assessment of their health concerns, then allows them to connect to a physician via a telehealth call or explore treatment options through its paid service.

Both companies share a similarly lightweight digital-first approach to healthcare, providing services without the cumbersome overhead of many competitors, and expanding access to mental health professionals who would otherwise be prohibitively expensive or difficult to reach. K Health intends to fold Trusst’s services into its existing offerings, which include 24/7 access to primary care providers and prescriptions for as low as $12/month.

The Hottest Space in Digital Health

According to Rock Health’s H1 2021 digital health funding report, the virtual mental health space attracted over $1.5b during the first six months of the year, making it the leading clinical focus for new digital health capital. 

That definitely seemed true last week. The K Health acquisition took place one day before  Headspace and Ginger’s blockbuster merger, and the timing is far from a coincidence.

With so much investor attention on the space and a limited number of mental health service providers, companies are quickly staking claims through M&A activity, and K Health is betting that Trusst’s text-based therapy could be the answer to meeting the growing demand for accessible mental health services.

Does Telehealth Really Lead to Patient Loyalty?

New analysis from Sanjula Jain, chief research officer at Trilliant and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, suggests that focusing on the wrong success metrics might be negatively impacting telehealth’s effectiveness as a digital front door.

  • In theory, a digital front door is a consumer-friendly and low-acuity engagement, like telehealth, that provides a health system with an opportunity to earn a greater share of an individual’s downstream services. 
  • In practice, telehealth’s ability to serve as a digital front door is hampered by low switching costs between similar services, with many consumers willing to shift from their current provider to a more affordable new entrant, such as Amazon Care.

Jain analyzed the behavior of insured individuals within and outside one of the country’s largest health systems, referred to as Health System A, finding that downstream capture from telehealth services did not indicate strong consumer loyalty.

  • The Findings – Roughly 13% of individuals within Health System A’s 2.7m consumer total addressable market accessed telehealth at least once in 2020, in line with the national average. Of those telehealth patients, Health System A captured a ~34% aggregate downstream share of care (based on revenue). 
  • The Impact – The low downstream share reflects the ability to capture an additional 65% of follow-up care prompted by the initial “front door” interaction. For comparison, Health System A’s service segment with the highest downstream capture was its Emergency Department (69%), indicating that telehealth might not be as effective of a digital front door as commonly perceived. 

The Takeaway

Telehealth is routinely serving as a digital front door, providing patients with their first exposure to a new health system, but more work is needed to validate its effectiveness. For telehealth to serve as a successful gateway to other services, health systems need better measurements of downstream care capture and consumer loyalty.

Pandemic Leads to Trust Issues

New research from patient engagement services provider SymphonyRM explored the growing distrust patients have for their doctors in the wake of COVID-19. 

A survey of 1,192 US healthcare consumers found that 41% had lost confidence in their doctor because of the pandemic, with a majority of mistrust stemming from preventable causes.

Reasons for Physician Mistrust

  • Infrequent communication about COVID-19 (53%)
  • Slow adoption of virtual care (29%)
  • Under-utilization of digital communication tools (24%)

Reasons for Improved Physician Trust

  • Quick transition to virtual care (61%)
  • High communication frequency about COVID-19 (58%)
  • Proactive use of digital communication (47%)

Patient Communication Needs

  • 41% would like to receive information about preventive screenings
  • 37% would like to receive information related to their chronic condition(s)
  • 37% would like to receive information and updates about the COVID-19 vaccine

Learning From Leaders

When asked what companies are the best at sharing information with users, 40% of respondents cited Amazon as the “gold standard” of communication. 

Amazon’s investments in real time shipping updates and 24/7 status monitoring have resonated with consumers, and it’s clear that patients are now looking for the same level of communication about their health. 

The survey suggests that providers looking to meet these evolving communication needs should look to consumer-facing brands when it comes to creating convenient experiences and driving engagement.

Do Clinicians Have Faith in Health Tech’s Future?

Accenture’s Health Strategy senior manager Dr. Darryl Gibbings-Isaac took to the HIMSS21 stage to discuss clinicians’ trust in the future of healthcare technology. The keynote addressed the findings of a new Accenture survey that asked physicians a series of true or false questions relating to their trust in technology’s growing clinical role.

1. Clinicians’ digital health adoption will not revert to pre-pandemic levels.

  • 71% will continue to use digital tools to the same or greater extent
  • 61% would invest in digital health tools if it improves their bottom line
  • 76% believe that digital investments will increase in the next five years 
  • Verdict – True

2. Clinicians believe AI is a threat to their future prosperity. 

  • 80% are interested in AI for clinical uses
  • 76% believe AI is not a threat to their job security
  • 45% have received training or have upcoming training about AI and digital tools
  • Verdict – False

3. Clinicians see value in investing in AI and digital health.

  • 68% see digital health’s long-term impact as positive
  • 61% believe that the investment required for digital health tools is a barrier
  • 76% believe that digital health spending will increase in the next five years despite barriers
  • Verdict – True

4. Clinicians trust in the security of healthcare technology.

  • 76% are only somewhat confident in measures to protect patient data
  • 41% have security concerns over patient data that hinders adoption
  • 33% of those uninterested in AI-based solutions cite lack of trust
  • Verdict – False

The Takeaway

To answer Accenture’s original question of whether or not clinicians have trust in the future of healthcare technology, the response is a reserved “yes.” While clinicians believe digital health adoption is here to stay, more work is needed to ensure trust in its security – specifically work centered around improving the three T’s: tools, transparency, and training.

Philips Expands HealthSuite With New Solutions

Although you’d be hard pressed to find a single product launch at HIMSS21 that did not address at least one of digital health’s quadruple aims (better health outcomes, improved patient / provider experience, lower costs), you’d have a similarly difficult time finding a solution that addresses all four. Philips HealthSuite is aiming to do just that.

Philips announced the expansion of its cloud-based HealthSuite platform to include two new solutions: Patient Flow Capacity Suite and Acute Care Telehealth. Both solutions address the quadruple aim not as individual products, but as pieces of a platform aspiring to be more than the sum of its parts.

  • Patient Flow Capacity Suite – A patient logistics solution that combines clinical and operational data to improve patient flow decisions with visualization and AI-supported analytics. PFCS’s value lies in streamlining inefficiencies throughout the continuum, whether in demand prediction, patient transition decisions, or patient flow bottleneck detection.
  • Acute Care Telehealth – A configurable solution that allows health systems to deploy a centralized command center, or a decentralized model of telehealth depending on their needs. By allowing customers to add additional hospitals or clinical units, the solution evolves alongside each organization’s telehealth strategy.

The Theme – Philips is seeking to establish HealthSuite as a future-proof solution, providing modularity for unique needs and a SaaS model that lowers ongoing resource strains. Although Philips’ size might raise questions about its agility in a fast moving digital health environment, its scale enables it to combine a platform infrastructure with its deep experience in clinical settings.

The Takeaway

Big problems require big solutions, and solving resource management and interoperability in healthcare is a heavy burden for a collection of disparate products. Adding Patient Flow Capacity Suite and Acute Care Telehealth to the HealthSuite platform lays the foundation for Philips to grow into a value-based partner for providers, as opposed to a classic transactional based vendor.

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