Value-based Telemedicine

▤ Summary

I had been answering questions, treating minor ailments and triaging the acutely ill for several years via text, but it was in that moment that I knew the iPhone and other smartphone devices would fundamentally and forever change the way physicians can deliver our services. It isn’t as simple as an isolated video chat, text message or phone call: it requires working remote physician access into an entire continuum of traditional care; supplementing and integrating virtual with in-person visits and closing the loop. Adding a co-pay or other fee-for-service component creates a cost barrier for the patient to use the service and therefore doesn’t meet the litmus test of the Triple Aim. What many doctors acknowledge is a workforce-wide collective depression results in large part from how physicians today spend the majority of their time: entering documentation into bulky electronic health record systems designed primarily to maximize fee-for-service billing rather than clinical utility or doctor-patient engagement. It requires enabling the ways people are already communicating, and the right telehealth solution reinforces new business models that create the right financial incentives and physician/patient workflows to align the interests of all participants.

▦ Linked Companies

CirrusMD

$10M to $25M