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

Amazon Syncs Alexa With Ecommerce App

By breaking into consumers’ smartphones, Alexa can now compete more directly with Apple’s Siri, Ok Google, Facebook M, and Microsoft’s Cortana. (Samsung is also reportedly developing its own voice ass...

Samsung Claims Its New Bixby Out-Assists Siri

Today, 40% of smartphone owners already use digital assistants, according to a recent survey conducted by Parks Associates. Not surprising, millennials are most likely to partake (46%), but -- as t...

Why Brands Like HBO and WWE Are Flocking to Streaming Subscription Services

In the history of TV—all 75 years of it—there has never been a time when so much content has been so readily available to watch. But with the average cable package now topping $103, according to Le...

Nearly a Third of Streaming Service Trials Result in a Paid Subscription

New research shows 32 percent of free trials for streaming services end in a subscription. That’s good news for Hulu and YouTube as they launched skinny bundle streaming services in the last month,...