Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

What should executives keep in mind as they consider the expanding acceptance of and preference for virtual care delivery among consumers and payers? There are three big considerations that are outlined in Virtual Care Demand Could Test Care Providers’ Health IT Infrastructure In 2015, a piece by Harry Wang, the lead analyst for Parks Associates’ digital health research program, that appeared recently in Computerworld.

  1. The video revolution has its challenges – While traditional patient portals are probably fine, according to Mr. Wang, interactive communications services using video could be a potential area for trouble. The issues to consider include video player configurations and related software challenges, system capabilities and reliability for increased video traffic, and security.
  2. Real-time health information exchange is the expectation – Virtual care increases timely access to professionals, and consumers expect their medical records to keep up. Increasing use of telehealth will highlight the problems of interoperability (see Net Neutrality Is About More Than Streaming Movies and Interoperable Electronic Data Exchange Is Non-Existent Among Long-Term Care Provider Organizations). Consumers expect timely access to past health records, lab tests, and diagnostic imaging.
  3. Dealing with all that remote monitoring data – The most advanced of virtual care systems leverage consumer self-monitoring capabilities, and integrated them into virtual care sessions. It sounds quite simple, but how such data will be fed into electronic health records (EHR) without delay and then compared with similar historical data is no simple matter. And, it is critically important to both the consumer experience and realizing cost savings from e-health.

From the article "The Uphill Climb To Virtual Care" by Monica E. Oss.

Previously In The News

VR Headset Demand On The Rise

As more households adopt the devices, “they will emerge as a new way to experience content streams coming into the home and a new interface for other connected devices throughout the home,” Parks also...

Amazon Fire TV Gains Market Share, Voice Upgrades

About 35.2 million broadband homes -- or 36% of homes with broadband service -- own a streaming media player, up from 27% in 2014, Parks estimates. About 12.7 million bought one in 2015, Parks estimat...

E3 2016 Plugs Into VR, 4K Gaming

To perhaps no one’s surprise, this year’s E3 gaming show, held last week in Los Angeles, was hyper-focused on all things virtual reality, as the gaming industry continues to pave the way to this nasce...

Millennials Lead Way Among OTT-Only Households

Twenty-three percent of broadband households headed by millennials have completely opted out of traditional pay-TV service for over-the-top (OTT) streaming, a Parks Associates survey found. The perce...