What You Should Know:

– Biobeat, a provider of wearable remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions, announced plans to integrate with Current Health, Best Buy’s care at home platform.

– This integration will empower healthcare organizations to scale their RPM capabilities and improve patient care delivery.

Key features of the integration partnership include:

– Biobeat’s wrist and chest monitors will be integrated with Current Health, providing healthcare organizations with a reliable technology solution for remote patient monitoring.

– Biobeat monitors continuously track 13 vital signs, including cuffless blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, stroke volume, cardiac output, one-lead ECG (chest monitor only), and more.

– Seamless data integration: Biobeat’s data seamlessly integrates with Current Health, providing clinicians with a comprehensive view of their patients’ health information.

– Improved scalability: This partnership allows healthcare organizations to easily scale their remote care capabilities and reach a wider patient population.

– Enhanced care delivery: By providing healthcare providers with real-time access to patient data, the partnership enables personalized care plans and timely interventions.

“We are thrilled that Biobeat’s wearables will be integrated with Current Health. This collaboration will further strengthen our footprint in the US and enable clinicians to monitor patients’ vital signs regardless of their location,” said Arik Ben Ishay, Co-Founder and CEO of Biobeat.

What You Should Know:

– The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has announced the creation of a new Clinician Council to tackle hurdles hindering the widespread adoption of telehealth and virtual care.

– This new Clinician Council aims to address emerging platforms and technologies supporting tech-enabled healthcare, while building trust through a “Trust Agenda” emphasizing responsibility, credibility, and integrity within the industry.

Clinician Council Leadership and Focus

• Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA: Highlighted the importance of the council in informing stakeholders about telehealth benefits and fostering a productive dialogue around its future.
• Joe Kvedar, MD, Council Chair and ATA Senior Clinical Advisor: Underscored the council’s focus on building trust, advising on healthcare ethics, patient/provider experiences, and relevant standards/guidelines.
• Lois Ritter, EdD, MS, MA, MS-HCA, ATA Research Director: Will support the council’s research, initiatives, and administration.

Clinician Council Composition:

• Clinicians from diverse healthcare specialties, including physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, physical therapists, and psychologists.
• Two-year term for each council member.

The inaugural Clinician Council members are:

• Gokhan Anil, MD (Mayo Clinic)
• Melynda Barnes, MD (Ro)
• Sameer Berry, MD, MBA (Oshi Health)
• Ethan Booker, MD (MedStar Health)
• Patrick Carroll, MD (HIMS, Inc.)
• Ian Choe, MD (Optum)
• Bonnie Clipper, DNP, MA, MBA, RN (Innovation Advantage)
• Melinda Cooling, APRN (OSF HealthCare)
• Abigail Crawford, APRN, FNP-C (WVU Medicine)
• Carrie Culpepper, RN, FNP-C, MBA (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center)
• Carlos Estrada, MD, MBA (Boston Children’s Hospital)
• Charles Fisher, PT, MPT, MBA (Hospital for Special Surgery)
• Debora Fisher, RN-BSN, MPH/A (MobileHelp/Clear Arch Health)
• Leanna Fortunato, PhD (American Psychological Association)
• Gail Golab, DVM, PhD (American Veterinary Medical Association)
• Linda Goodwin, MSN, RN (CommonSpirit)
• Shawn Griffin, MD (URAC)
• Derrick Haslem, MD (Intermountain Health)
• Helen Hughes, MD, MPH (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
• Anney Joseph, OD, FAAO (Department of Veterans Affairs)
• Florence Kariuki, RN, BSN (Health Recovery Solutions)
• John Kazianis, MD (Hicuity Health)
• Malik Khan, MD, FCCP (Corewell Health)
• Jade Le, MD (Access Telecare)
• Shannon MacDonald, MD (Mass General Brigham)
• Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH (Harvard Medical School)
• David Newman, MD (Sanford Health)
• Ngoc-Anh Nguyen, MD (Houston Methodist)
• Jordan Pritzker, MD, MBA (Aetna)
• Adonis Saremi, MD (Noom, Inc.)
• Helen Schnase, MD, MBA (Transcarent)
• Kate Steinle, MSN (FolxHealth)
• Kellie Swink BSN, RN (Children’s National Medical Center)
• Greg Weidner, MD, FACP (One Medical/Amazon)
• Eric Weil, MD (MDLive by Evernorth)
• Huiling Zhang, MD, MPH, MBA (Philips)

Future Plans

The Clinician Council’s first meeting will be held during the ATA’s EDGE Policy Conference, taking place December 13-15 in Washington, D.C.

“The Clinician Council will prioritize building trust within the healthcare community and advise on key topics like healthcare ethics, patient and provider experiences with virtual care, and standards, guidelines, and practices for ATA members. We look forward to leveraging the Council’s collective thought leadership, unique perspectives, and vision to guide the future of telehealth and virtual care,” said Dr. Joe Kvedar, the ATA’s Immediate Past Chair and Senior Clinical Advisor.

What You Should Know:

UpHealth, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cloudbreak Health, LLC, to private equity firm GTCR for $180 million in cash.

The sale will allow UpHealth to reduce its debt and focus on its growing behavioral health business, TTC Healthcare. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2024.

CloudBreak Health Background

Cloudbreak Health, known for its Martti translation offering, provides telehealth and video remote interpretation solutions. Martti, short for “My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter,” delivers medical interpreters in over 250 languages through custom Martti devices, including tablets and smartphones. Cloudbreak, a key part of UpHealth’s Virtual Care Infrastructure segment, has experienced strategic expansion and growth, doubling revenue in the last three years and enhancing the customer service experience.

Focus on TTC Healthcare

GTCR will acquire complete equity ownership of Cloudbreak, including the aggregate Cloudbreak employee base. UpHealth’s CEO, Martin Beck, said that the sale will allow the company to “sharpen its focus on TTC Healthcare, a profitable and cash-generating behavioral health business, as a growth platform.”

What You Should Know:

– The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has initiated the Virtual Care Accreditation Pilot program, a significant step in developing a quality improvement framework for organizations offering care through telehealth or digital platforms.

– NCQA has selected 18 pilot organizations from a pool of over 100 applicants. These organizations are based in 12 states and Puerto Rico and represent various entities, including health plans, health systems, Federally Qualified Health Centers, patient-centered medical homes, and virtual-first/virtual-only organizations.

Virtual Care Accreditation Pilot Development & Focus Areas

The pilot organizations will provide valuable input to shape NCQA’s Virtual Care Accreditation program, the first of its kind, designed to highlight the quality of care delivered through virtual or hybrid modalities by diverse healthcare organizations. Early versions of the accreditation program will concentrate on primary care and urgent care. Future versions will expand to include opportunities for organizations to distinguish themselves in other virtual care areas, such as behavioral healthcare and acute, post-acute, or specialty care.

Early versions of the accreditation program will concentrate on primary care and urgent care. Future versions will expand to include opportunities for organizations to distinguish themselves in other virtual care areas, such as behavioral healthcare and acute, post-acute, or specialty care.

Virtual Care Pilot Organizations

The selected pilot organizations include health plans such as Aetna Better Health of Virginia and Blue Shield of California, health systems like ChristianaCare Health System, patient-centered medical homes including Union Health Center, Federally Qualified Health Centers like Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, and virtual-only entities such as CirrusMD, Curai, Everly Health, Firely Health, HubMD PC, MDLIVE, and Privia Virtual Health, LLC.

NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane emphasizes that as care delivery evolves, virtual care has become a new normal, requiring standardization and reliable quality assessment. The Virtual Care Accreditation aims to serve as a roadmap and foundation for safe, effective, and equitable virtual care.

What You Should Know:

– A recent study reveals that telemedicine is related to increased EHR time for physicians in the ambulatory setting, primarily due to documentation of visits, and may require adjustments in productivity expectations and strategies to address EHR documentation burden for physicians in healthcare systems.

– The longitudinal cohort study of 1052 ambulatory physicians conducted at UCSF Health analyzes the time physicians spent working in the EHR during patient scheduled hours (PSH) from two one-year periods: one before the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2018-September 2019) and one after its onset (August 2020-September 2021).

Study Outcomes/Results

Comparing the period before to the period after the pandemic onset reveals that physician time spent working in the EHR during PSHs:

– increased from 4.53 to 5.46 hours per 8 PSH (difference, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.87-0.98; P < 0.001)

– outside of PSHs, increased from 4.29 to 5.34 hours (difference, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.95-1.14; P < 0.001)

– time documenting during and outside of PSHs increased from 6.35 to 8.18 hours (difference, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.72-1.94; P < 0.001).

– Mean weekly messages received from patients increased from 16.76 to 30.33, and messages sent to patients increased from 13.82 to 29.83.

– In multivariable models, weeks with a mix of face-to-face and telemedicine (β, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.31-0.55; P < .001) visits or entirely telemedicine (β, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.74-1.09; P < .001) had more EHR time during PSHs than all face-to-face weeks, with similar results for EHR time outside of PSHs.

Addressing Physician Burnout

The study suggests that health systems may need to adjust productivity expectations for physicians and implement strategies to alleviate EHR documentation burden.

What You Should Know: 

– Amwell and Leidos have been awarded a “next-generation contract” by the U.S. Defense Health Agency (DHA) to deliver a hybrid care platform to power the DHA’s Digital First transformation. This initial 22-month contract is valued at up to $180M; the project will start at five initial sites followed by a phased enterprise-wide rollout.  

– While this task order is for the first phase of the program, the DHA Digital First program will support the entire MHS community of users, which includes 9.6 million active-duty service members, family members, retirees, and health professionals across the continuum of care.  

DHA Digital First Inititiave

Under this task order, the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health (LPDH) will deliver Amwell ConvergeTM, a comprehensive hybrid care enablement platform designed to power the full continuum of care using digital, virtual and automated modalities, and replace the Military Health System (MHS) Video Connect solution. It will start at five initial sites followed by a phased enterprise roll-out. Also included in the contract are a broad spectrum of Amwell automated care programs that have a proven track record of helping deliver better health outcomes, including multiple behavioral health and integrated core telehealth solutions.

The DHA’s Digital First initiative brings new capabilities and enablement to MHS GENESIS, an advanced electronic health record (EHR) and healthcare system solution that supports military and Veteran healthcare initiatives. The Converge platform has deep integration assets and a simple yet powerful user experience that enables efficient and quality hybrid care delivery. The platform is already embedded into existing clinical workflows that care teams rely on, including those within the core EHR that powers MHS GENESIS. Together, Amwell and LPDH will enable the DHA to leverage the benefits of hybrid care, improve access to primary and behavioral health care, and ultimately improve outcomes for the MHS community.

The DHA supports national security and ensures our nation’s military teams are ready to deploy. Seeking to leverage innovation and best practices from the commercial sector, the DHA conducted a thorough evaluation of the Amwell solution.

“Digital First addresses DHA’s goal of better outcomes, new processes, innovation and increased standardization based on evidence,” said Jason McCarthy, Leidos senior vice president, Military and Veterans Health Solutions. “As part of our overall MHS GENESIS effort to enhance patient experience, we, along with Amwell, are looking forward to providing near real-time, self-service support and hybrid care options for our customer and those whom they serve.”

What You Should Know: 

– Avidex, a provider of audiovisual and interactive patient care solutions, and Artisight, an AI-powered smart hospital platform announced a strategic partnership.

– Avidex and Artisight will harness the strengths of both companies to provide a turnkey virtual care solution. Avidex will take on the role of the in-room technology integrator, leveraging its expertise to install and support the solution’s essential AV equipment and platform integration of its proprietary TigrPX interactive patient engagement system, enabling the Artisight smart hospital platform to leverage the in-room television for virtual care delivery.

Artisight Smart Hospital Platform

Artisight’s smart hospital platform, built on advanced AI technology, enhances patient care by streamlining end-to-end processes through high-quality video and audio processing, computer vision, voice recognition, and best-in-class indoor positioning systems. Prioritizing enterprise-grade stability and seamless interoperability, the Artisight platform combines intelligent sensors, deep learning technology, and contemporary integrations, resulting in significant enhancement of clinical care. This HIPAA-compliant platform also automates remote patient monitoring, improving operating efficiency while ensuring timely notifications to clinicians when attention is needed. The hardware- and EHR-agnostic platform reduces clinician burnout and improves nurse and patient satisfaction.

“We believe that the synergy between Avidex and Artisight will create a transformative impact on patient care and healthcare delivery,” said Andrew Gostine, MD, MBA, CEO and co-founder of Artisight. “By combining Avidex’s audiovisual expertise and its TigrPX patient engagement solution with Artisight’s advanced AI-driven smart hospital platform, we are poised to offer healthcare facilities a comprehensive virtual patient care solution that significantly improves patient care, satisfaction, and hospital efficiency.”

What You Should Know: 

– Inpatient telehealth innovator Vitalchat announced today an integration partnership with Samsung healthcare TV displays. 

– The Vitalchat app, which offers immediate access to the company’s patented telehealth solutionsis now integrated with Samsung’s healthcare displays to deliver a more informed, comfortable and personalized patient care ecosystem.

Enable up to 100 rooms to be monitored simultaneously.

Engineered for the unique needs of patients in healthcare environments, Samsung’s HCU7030 and HCF800 Crystal Hospital 4K TVs and Vitalchat’s AI-enabled E-Sitter and Virtual Visit solutions provide a robust, best-in-class solution for clinicians. The Vitalchat app leverages the Tizen platform within the Samsung healthcare TV, which enables hospitals and other clinical environments to use a lower-cost camera and still generate the same, high-quality audio and video without bogging down the network.

Healthcare organizations have the potential to reap a near-immediate ROI with Vitalchat telehealth solutions, as they are designed to free up caregiver time and improve care delivery. With Samsung healthcare TVs, hospitals can also be fully set up with the telehealth technology within minutes versus days, negating patient room downtime.

“Our partnership with Vitalchat illustrates our commitment to driving better healthcare by connecting patients and families with their care team,” explains Chris Mertens, Vice President of U.S. Sales, B2B Displays, Samsung Electronics America. “The pairing of Samsung healthcare grade displays and Vitalchat’s SmartView and MultiView software ensures patients are being monitored 24/7, as an exemplified safeguard for patient safety and quickly attending to patient’s needs.”

What You Should Know: 

– Walmart announced it is expanding virtual primary care, building on the traditional telehealth service for occasional sick visits for Walmart associates and their families. 

– As part of this expansion, virtual care options for digestive health and physical therapy will also be available, including some basic at-home lab work early next year. Most virtual health care benefits are available at no cost to associates and their families ($0 co-pay).  

What You Should Know: 

– Amwell forms a strategic partnership with Discovery Health, a health insurance administrator, which will introduce the first-ever digital therapeutic benefits funded by a health insurer in South Africa. 

– As part of the collaboration, clinicians are now able to prescribe SilverCloud by Amwell, a clinically validated, evidence-based and affordable digital mental healthcare platform, to Discovery Health members.

Benefit Offering Expands Access to Digital Cognitive Behaviour Therapies

This partnership comes at a critical time as Discovery Health’s data from member claims reveal that the prevalence of mental health conditions has steadily increased in recent years. Aligned to global statistics, including the World Health Organization’s measure of a 25% rise in the prevalence of depression since 2018, Discovery Health demonstrates a 19% increase in the prevalence of depression since the pre-pandemic period. Adding to the strain, South Africa’s healthcare industry has also been impacted by the global workforce shortage trend. Rising prevalence with lower supply of essential service underscores Discovery Health’s need to leverage technology to broaden access to treatment via innovative, effective, and affordable digital therapies.

What You Should Know: 

– Cedars-Sinai announced the expansion of virtual healthcare for patients in California through a new mobile app that allows individuals to quickly and easily access Cedars-Sinai experts for sick, chronic, and preventive care.

– Through the new virtual healthcare option Cedars-Sinai Connect, healthcare professionals are available 24/7 for urgent issues, and same-day appointments are accessible for primary care—reducing wait times for those seeking medical attention.

– Cedars-Sinai Connect accepts all forms of insurance that Cedars-Sinai takes, including employer-provided plans.

Cedars-Sinai Connect, Powered by K Health

The new mobile app developed by K Health  and Cedars-Sinai was developed Cedars-Sinai Connect through a new joint venture, empowering physicians by reducing the burdens of clinical intake and data entry, allowing doctors to focus more on patient care. K Health helps patients manage their acute, chronic and preventive care needs through a platform that harnesses medical knowledge and real patient experiences.

The app’s chat feature gathers health details and symptoms from patients to help assess their medical concerns and presents that information to a clinician for review. This streamlines the intake process so providers can focus more on patient care. After the guided intake, patients can choose to connect with a clinician for an appointment via video call.

What You Should Know: 

– Teladoc Health announced new strategic partnerships with musculoskeletal (MSK) care providers Sword Health & Hinge Health to offer employers access to a full suite of digital physical therapy solutions for joint and muscle pain relief. 

– MSK conditions are a top cost driver for 76% of employers in the U.S. (second only to cancer), costing an estimated $213B in annual treatment, care and lost wages. The move helps Teladoc Health clients offer a broader range of virtual care services to their employees through simplified contracting and management.

What You Should Know:

• Telehealth has undergone a transition from pandemic era lifeline to convenient outlet for routine follow-ups, treatment of minor illnesses and mental health service.
• Along the way, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study,SM released today, a stark generation gap has emerged between Millennials1 and Boomers, with younger patients driving the highest overall satisfaction scores and older patients experiencing significantly lower levels of satisfaction.

Analysing the Stark Generation Gap Emerging in Tele-healthcare 

“Telehealth is here to stay,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “As overall utilization volumes normalized following the pandemic, we continue to see a clear trend toward telehealth adoption for routine care and ongoing mental health visits. Moreover, overall satisfaction is associated with telehealth mobile app utilization compared with other channels. At the same time, we are seeing some significant barriers to adoption in some populations, particularly among older patients and underserved populations who are struggling with digital channels and having challenges with access and ease of use.”

Here are key findings from the 2023 study:

1. Telehealth satisfaction varies by generation: Overall satisfaction is 698, but Gen Y and Gen Z have higher scores (714), while Boomers and Pre-Boomers score lower (671). The satisfaction gap is most pronounced in digital channels and appointment scheduling, suggesting older users face usability issues.

2. Trust is a concern: Satisfaction is highest for healthcare personnel and meeting patient needs but drops significantly in terms of overall trust.

3. Speed and convenience drive telehealth usage: Patients choose telehealth primarily for convenience (28%) and quicker access to care (17%).

4. Providers should simplify access: Given that convenience and time-saving are key motivators for telehealth use, providers must ensure easy access. Satisfaction is 172 points higher when digital channels are deemed “very easy” to use compared to “not very easy.”

What You Should Know: 

– Wheel, an Austin, TX-based virtual care platform empowering companies to deliver consumer-centric care, announced the next generation of its virtual care platform to help enterprise organizations build seamless care experiences. 

– Wheel enables enterprise organizations looking to grow their virtual care offering, drive engagement and loyalty, and deliver high-quality virtual care at scale. In just three years, the company has delivered care to over four million people, built a customer portfolio of leading digital health brands such as GoodRx, and is powering large enterprises and Fortune 50 companies in retail, health plan, and pharmaceutical and life science industries, including as a third-party provider for Amazon Clinic. 

Wheel’s Virtual Care Platform Features

Wheel’s platform incorporates configurable virtual care programs, a seamless consumer experience, and a nationwide clinician network — providing organizations with everything they need to deliver:

• Convenient virtual care: With Wheel’s patented smart routing and marketplace technology, consumers will be matched with the right clinicians when and where they feel most comfortable receiving care across chat, phone, and video visits. Wheel’s virtual care platform supports 24/7 virtual visits across all 50 states with industry-leading response times, connecting clinicians with consumers in minutes. 

• Personalized virtual care: From the first intake to follow-up, Wheel provides a virtual care experience that meets consumers’ needs and expectations. Clinicians are also set up for success with clinical tools built from the ground up to support simple, personalized workflows including requesting lab orders, ordering prescriptions and diagnostics, sharing education materials, requesting follow-up appointments, recommending referrals to specialists, and more. Accordingly, an industry-high 93% of Wheel clinicians report high satisfaction with delivering care via Wheel’s EMR.

• Comprehensive virtual care: Launch integrated virtual care experiences that can be easily configured, deployed, and optimized with Wheel’s library of proven care programs across Urgent Care, Primary Care, Convenience Care, and Condition Management. Wheel also ensures a connected care experience for consumers through the seamless integration of customers’ existing partners as well as Wheel’s pre-integrated ecosystem partners.

What You Should Know:

– Cartwheel, a platform helping schools tackle the student mental health crisis by delivering affordable, evidence-based telehealth services with no waitlist raises $20M in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures. Reach Capital joined the round, as did earlier investors General Catalyst, BoxGroup and Able Partners.

– The funding will allow Cartwheel to expand mental health services to hundreds of thousands of new students in current service areas, as well as school districts in new states.

Evidence-Based Mental Health Support

Founded in 2022, Cartwheel has quickly become a trusted mental health partner to schools. The founding team, which includes Chief Medical Officer, Juliana Chen, MD, a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, had collectively spent decades working in schools and community mental health clinics and felt the need for stronger school-community partnership to improve accessibility, quality, and financial sustainability of mental health care.

Today, when a school district partners with Cartwheel, school counselors can refer students for clinical mental health services with no waitlists. Cartwheel’s in-house team of licensed clinicians delivers evidence-based telehealth services, including 1-1 therapy, group therapy, parent guidance, and medication support – all as an in-network benefit covered by the family’s insurance. Operating year-round, Cartwheel allows students to see a licensed clinician at home or at school and during evenings, weekends, school breaks, and summers.

“By combining funding from school districts and health insurers, we’ve helped superintendents ensure the long-term financial sustainability of these services,” added Daniel Tartakovsky, Co-Founder and COO of Cartwheel and previously a mental health policy advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General. “We believe our model will become a blueprint for districts across the country on how to build a long-term school-community partnership, especially as school budgets tighten with the expiration of federal COVID relief dollars.”

Throughout care, Cartwheel works hand-in-hand with school staff and families to ensure the student is appropriately supported. A clinically licensed Program Manager supports school administrators on student cases, parent engagement, and staff training throughout the year; and bilingual Care Coordinators help families with scheduling, insurance, and referrals for additional services. Parents can also schedule weekly guidance sessions with a licensed clinician to discuss ways to support their child, even if their child isn’t interested in therapy themselves. Parents can also join educational workshops on timely mental health topics, ranging from school avoidance to social media use.