Keynote Speaker Outlines Vision for Virtual Care Team
James Mault, MD, vice president and chief medical officer at Qualcomm Life, kept the packed audience at rapt attention Saturday afternoon during the keynote address at the AAMI 2013 Annual Conference & Expo in Long Beach, CA, as he shared his vision on how patients, families, and healthcare providers can better coordinate care as more and more people age in place.
Mault, who founded HealthyCircle (MyTeleHealth Solutions, LLC), helped develop an online platform to deliver an integrated suite of products and services to connect patients with others who need to know their health information.
The session kicked off with Mault asking attendees a series of questions. He started off by asking about the use of credit cards and whether individuals checked their financial information online. Most people in the audience indicated that they do. By contrast, when Mault asked who in the audience had checked their cholesterol levels or immunization records online, very few people indicated yes. He didn't seem surprised at the low number.
Currently, the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense allow veterans to access their health records online via The Blue Button, which the VA unveiled in fall 2010. This sort of access will become increasingly important, as the world of healthcare is changing rapidly.
As Mault noted in his speech, patients are being discharged from the hospital faster than ever. That poses a challenge to for the coordination of care, as some patients will require the aid of caregivers, dieticians, and other providers, he said. Often there is no coordination, but rather “silos of behavior,” with each provider rendering care without talking to the others. Until the incentives change to encourage better coordination, this situation will remain in place, he said.
Mault said this situation is unsustainable and needs to be changed. He then outlined his vision of an virtual care team for patients who would have the ability to share health information with healthcare providers and family, regardless of location. HealthyCircles developed such a service, which is designed to address the new reimbursement system in which there will be a shift from fee-for-service to outcome-based models.
This connected care network has a number of benefits, including allowing doctors to evaluate more patients per day, Mault said. Such a system would eliminate the need for unnecessary visits required by insurance companies or other entities, he added. Furthermore, doctors could practice exception management, that is having only those patients who need immediate care come in to the office. Physicians could then deliver “the appropriate attention for the appropriate level of need,” he said.
The annual conference continues with additional educational sessions and the Dwight E. Harken, MD, Memorial Lecture and AAMI Awards Luncheon. The session will feature a talk from one of the most recognizable leaders in healthcare, David Bates, chief quality officer and senior vice president at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Posted: 06.01.13