Connected Health

A virtual care CEO says telemedicine means more physicians in the mix, enabling them to delegate less-complex tasks. Health systems should then be able to reduce wait times with that newly expanded capacity.

As one telemedicine CEO looks to the year ahead, he predicts RPM will improve outcomes for congestive heart failure patients and help manage those on the wildly popular GLP-1 diabetes and weight loss medications.

Conversations have only started in the past few years about what digital equity is and how it applies to telemedicine and virtual care. Here's what the Detroit-based health system has learned so far.

A nurse expert discusses the results of a new survey from AvaSure showing that, while virtual nursing has yet to gain traction in acute inpatient care, it holds much promise – and already is showing results that benefit both nurses and the bottom line.

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine did a controlled test and showed the odds of infection-related readmissions were decreased in the RTM group by 76% at 30 days, 80% at 60 days and 68% at 90 days.

The number of telehealth services provided by Children's Mercy Kansas City is astounding. And they get tremendously high patient satisfaction scores. The health system's nurse director of telemedicine offers a detailed tour, with some key advice for her peers.

Through its partnership with DispatchHealth, MedStar Health is now providing care in patient homes after hospital stays and emergency visits, or through virtual healthcare referrals.

The combination of 5G and IoT could redefine remote healthcare, getting closer to a future where patients can receive hospital-grade care from anywhere. And more user-friendly and patient-centered devices should drive broader adoption.

The strategy has had a big impact on patient access, bed capacity, and heart failure and all-cause readmissions – not to mention appreciation of patients and family thankful to receive care safely at home instead of having to be admitted to the hospital.

The health system said the partnership with Amazon One Medical will bring new primary care offices to the Cleveland region to improve the patient experience at every touchpoint.