Health Innovation in a Pandemic
SUMMARY
During Boulder Startup Week, President Kristin Apple co-moderated a discussion about how the health industry pivoted their strategies to meet the demands arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
There were four key ideas around innovation that led us feeling hopeful for the future of health and the implications of a pandemic. Those are: emerging communication models, prioritizing continual care, reframing the ER, and opening access to platforms.
Watch the entire video from our discussion with experts from Redox, SomaLogic, CareLoop, DispatchHealth, and SteadyMD.
Innovation in healthcare has moved faster in the past 10 weeks than it has in the last 5 years. During a time consumers needed it most, the digital health, life sciences, and care delivery industries rallied to answer this call for innovation and progress.
Co-moderated by LINUS President, Kristin Apple, and Niko Skievaski from Redox at a panel during Boulder Startup Week, we talked with leaders from SomaLogic, CareLoop, DispatchHealth and SteadyMD about how their organizations pivoted during the crisis.
While the conversation spanned from trade-offs during the impact to the rippling effects we’ll experience for years to come, four key ideas around innovation encouraged us as we think about the future of health and innovation. Read about them below or watch our entire discussion.
New Infrastructure Calls For New Communication Models
Every day, the science and research of coronavirus continues to evolve. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals are being forced to pivot and accommodate for a new reality that is continually changing. In healthcare systems, virtual care, telemedicine, and alternative care models were considered last resort options prior to the pandemic. Seemingly overnight, brick and mortar practices are needing to accommodate an influx of virtual patients and new communication models need to be implemented.
“Fortunately we had started a virtual care center … and we would see maybe twenty patients a day. And when COVID started that quickly changed. It was quite fascinating to watch our emergency department visits plummet,” says Dr. Foster Goss. “We were down about 40% because nobody wants to go to the emergency department and they were being encouraged to stay home and isolate. However, our virtual care visits shot up about 5,000%.”
Developing the importance of communication and tools that leverage technology to set up the patient experience for success was critical for not only Dr. Goss and CareLoop, but every organization’s leader we spoke with as they transitioned to a more centralized and integrated patient communication system.
Telemedicine’s Shift from Episodic to Continual Care
By nature, telemedicine has adopted an episodic rhythm when it comes to taking care of patients. While this model isn’t wrong, it lacks one key aspect for patient care: relationships.
Dr. Josh Emdur discussed SteadyMD’s approach to match like-minded physicians with like-minded patients. This shifts care beyond episodic transactions — re-imagining the current status quo of telemedicine, to now, paving the way for what connected care can deliver.
“We've really changed the primary care model of having an online doctor who is aligned with the patients and is always connected and available to them via technology,” says Dr. Emdur. “I’m a runner and I like to climb and bike, so my patients come in from all over the country with similar interests. It can really help with keeping my patients healthy.”
When healthcare professionals build relationships with patients, they can treat the entire person, not just the symptom.
Reframing the Purpose of the Emergency Department
With the proliferation of COVID-19, a lot of patients in need of emergency care are reluctant to visit somewhere that may increase their likelihood of contracting the virus. Yet there still remains a delicate balance between urging patients to seek emergency treatment when it’s needed and encouraging minor problems to be cared for via virtual care or a dispatch service.
“There's been a push from our partners in the market to say, ‘hey, you know, this shouldn't be in the hospital, this shouldn't be in the emergency room.’ says Nabeel Meghji of DispatchHealth. “It’s been a really interesting dynamic working with everyone in the ecosystem to find the right size care.”
An opportunity exists to expand the way we access and deliver care. Optimizing care triage resources will help. Innovation in care triage — how, when and where patients access care — will save money, time, and deliver an optimized patient experience.
Open Access, Removes Barriers
To speed innovation and collaboration, companies like SomaLogic are reducing barriers to entry for platform access. “We've really focused on providing our platform as widely as possible to researchers as quickly as possible,” says Liz Kah, MD at SomaLogic. “We’ve also eliminated our typical terms and conditions to make contracting as easy as possible and get to these samples in the door as quickly as possible.”
Pivots or expansion to services and tools allows researchers and clinicians access tools quicker, without the expected issues normally associated with trying or adopting new methods. This speed in development and access is likely to change the way research is conducted in the future. We’re hopeful that the collaboration and speed to develop we are seeing evolve in the pandemic will stay in the Next Normal.
While the pandemic has left a lot of disruption in its wake, it has also brought forward the most innovative ideas in the healthcare experience in a decade. The companies who adapt and shape the next normal in healthcare will be the ones writing the future of health.
About our panelists
Josh Emdur, MD, Chief Medical Officer @ SteadyMD
Foster R. Goss DO, MMSc, FACEP, Chief Medical Officer, President, and Founder @ CareLoop, Inc., Associate Professor at University of Colorado School of Medicine
Liz Kah, MD, Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development @ SomaLogic
Nabeel Meghji, Chief Product Officer @ DispatchHealth
Moderator
Kristin Apple, President at LINUS