The dawn of Virtual Care
Let’s start from the definition
Virtual Care encompasses all the ways healthcare providers remotely interact with their patients. In addition to treating patients via telemedicine, providers may use live video, audio, and instant messaging to communicate with their patients. This may include checking in after an in-person visit, monitoring vitals after surgery, or responding to any questions about their diagnosis, condition or treatment plan. Simply put, the term virtual care is a way of talking about all the ways patients and doctors can use digital tools to communicate. — Teladoc
About 20 years ago Teladoc was founded to focus on a single issue: enable providers to deliver care remotely. We all knew this was the future but, it took a global pandemic to accept it and transition 10% of all visits to this channel.
The journey ahead for digital healthcare delivery is the same one that the retail industry experienced in the last 25 years. From the first days in which Amazon sold book online, we moved to a world in which Amazon not only is the backbone of commerce for all merchandize categories wether or not sold directly, but also has a retail presence that enables them to deliver a consistent multichannel experience.
The digital transformation of care delivery is just getting started
Most Virtual Care providers are specialized on specific condition, and don’t have a physical presence. It’s mostly a mono-dimensional experience that doesn’t meet the expectations of modern users accustomed to satisfy their needs in the “Everything store”, and smoothly transition between the virtual and physical world. All major players are focused on a specific health condition/service and/or delivery channel:
- Virtual primary/urgent care: Teladoc, Amwell, Doctor On Demand, Oscar Virtual Care, 98point6, K-health
- Omni-channel primary/urgent/behavioral care: One Medical, Heal, Tia, Brightline
- Remote chronic condition coaching with/without monitoring devices: Livongo, Omada, Hinge, Level 2, Fitbit, Big Health, Optum, Verily, insurance carriers
- Specialized virtual care: Ginger, Lyra, Modern Health, Talkspace, AbleTo, Brightside, Better Help, Virta, Progeny, Ovia, Carrot, Cleo, Cricket
- Remote post acute care monitoring: Vivify
- Virtual navigation: Accolade, Grand Rounds, Castlight, Quantum, Collective Health, Carrum, Oscar
- Virtual prescriptions: Hims/Hers, GoodRX
- Virtual tech: Intouch (Teladoc), Wheel, Ro
- Omni-channel comprehensive care: Kaiser, Optum Care Delivery Organizations
These services are not only better than the traditional alternatives with respect to quality, but also more accessible, more convenient, and cheaper. The list is not exhaustive but gives a sense of the fragmentation of the space which is certainly not what users expect. To borrow again from another industry, consumers decided to ditch their music player, GPS, camera, and telephone for the smartphone that integrate these 3rd party services.
So what’s the next phase for Virtual Care?
The answer is in the true-and-tried integrated/modular framework by Clayton Christensen.
The traditional care delivery model by carriers and large health systems is being disrupted by highly specialized players focusing on virtual capabilities, but this still leaves the user with a fragmented experience similar to the PC era. What’s coming next is the highly optimized iOS/Android of healthcare, where apps are either deeply integrated into the systems (e.g. Siri, Pay, etc.), or build by 3rd parties in harmony with it so that the health history and needs of each individual is the same across all applications (benefits) available to each.
This is the real promise of Virtual Care, and what excites me the most.
A beautiful experience that guides people, not only to the most effective resources, but that also understands their humanity during their uniquely challenging healthcare journey.
All views are my own
