At the beginning of the year, some analysts ventured that this might be the year that telehealth will take off. A pair of pilot projects springing up in the Northeast is lending weight to that prediction.
New York's Mount Sinai Health System has announced a number of telehealth programs designed to push digital care out of the doctor's office and into the home. A little farther north, Boston-based American Well is launching its new WellConnection video care program in a partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
The two initiatives hope to add to the growing evidence base that telehealth can improve care outcomes and reduce costs by connecting consumers to healthcare resources when and where they need help, while helping clinicians fine-tune their workloads.
The American Well project brings together one of the nation's largest telehealth providers with a payer that's exploring new quality-based care programs. It's significant because payers have generally been slow to jump on the telemedicine bandwagon, and providers have been wary of using those tools without promise of reimbursement.
The WellConnection platform, which enables patients to engage with their healthcare providers by video, is being adopted by the Emerson Hospital Physician Organization and the Lowell General Hospital Physician Organization, two physician groups that are part of BCBSMA's new Alternative Quality Contract (AQC) program. The AQC program is designed to "promote quality and reward physicians and hospital for positive health outcomes."
"We are always identifying ways to make it easier for our patients to receive the best medical care," Gregory Martin, chief medical officer at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.,, said in a press release issued by American Well. "We are excited to have several physician practices pilot WellConnection to deliver care in the most convenient way for our patients. Leveraging the latest technology enables us to be accessible to patients in particular, well-defined circumstances – even when it is not easy for them to visit the office. All they need is a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer and they can have a valuable visit with their provider through the power of telemedicine."
The two-year pilot will enable providers and patients to connect via video for treatment of selected health conditions. The Mill City Medical Group in Lowell, Mass., and Damian Folch, MD, in Chelmsford, Mass., are the participating practices in the Lowell General PHO; the Emerson PHO is working to identify participating physician practices.
"We are very excited for the opportunity to be on the forefront of embracing new technology and piloting telemedicine in our offices," Pauline Tsirigotis, a physician at the Mill City Medical Group and medical director of the Lowell General PHO, said in the release. "We will be able to evaluate firsthand the adoption of telemedicine (and) the ease of use for our physicians and patients, as well as any impact on the quality of patient care."
In New York, meanwhile, Mount Sinai is rolling out at least four new telehealth projects in an effort to scale up what has so far worked well in small settings.
“Technology has evolved to a point where it is less of a novelty in our doctors’ offices and more of an essential part of our physicians’ toolkits – and, indeed, an everyday part of our patients’ lives," Kumar Chatani, executive vice president and chief information officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, said in a press release. "The time has come for telehealth to move to the next level by putting it into wider practice."
Among the projects now underway, the Primary Care Program is enabling physicians in the Mount Sinai Doctors Family Practice to offer remote patient consults through a secure digital platform. There's also the TeleStroke Program, which provides an instant link between the stroke program at Mount Sinai Queens and the Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, and a program that connects a community health center in upstate New York with pediatric epilepsy specialists at Mount Sinai for telehealth encounters that are scheduled after an initial face-to-face visit.
Mount Sinai is also launching a telehealth program in its Emergency Department whereby clinicians can connect with chronically ill patients in their homes to improve care management and prevent health concerns that lead to ER visits.
"Telehealth is yet another access point for our patients who want to discuss their health concerns and new health problems with their own physician via a video consultation,” said Aida Vega, MD, director of Primary Care Associates at Mount Sinai and an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who's leading the Primary Care Program. “It is also an excellent way to monitor patients with chronic health problems who need more continuous follow-up care.”
This isn't the only mHealth project in which Mount Sinai in involved. The Icahn School of Medicine is working with LifeMap solutions on a large-scale study of asthma sufferers that will make use of the newly unveiled ReasearchKit framework by Apple. That project will make use of the Asthma App, one of five apps unveiled by Apple this week that will enable consumers to use their iPhones to participate in studies.
