The new primary care: what’s tech got to do with it?
Let’s be honest: the healthcare system has been far behind in leveraging patient-facing technology— tech for primary care.
Medical pros have often been awesome, as we see lately. But their patient-to-provider technology…not so much.
At least until now.
That’s pretty—excuse us—shocking, considering the astounding technologies in the hands of large medical institutions. Think of advanced diagnostic testing, of hospital ops, not to mention historic advances in treatment.
Why the striking contrast? The reason isn’t hard to find.
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Primary care, although the gateway to any patient journey into the healthcare system, has had far less of the attention and prestige, not to mention the profit margin of the medical specialties.
That disparity has had a long history. The 19th century family doctor had what we’d call now a holistic view of each of their patients, their medical history and living conditions.
But a hyper-specialization of medicine peaked in the first half of the 20th century when what was called General Medicine all but disappeared from the academic curriculum.
Even today, primary care doctors tend to be paid less. In the public eye at least, the role of their PCP is too often reduced to an annual check up and treatment for an occasional flare of illness. Primary care has always been far more than that.
New approaches
But now new companies with disruptive new medical and payment models are reshaping how we think about primary care. In some ways, the family doctor role is returning to its roots, albeit in a 21st-century context of technology, innovation and new ideas.
Is it any wonder that in the last two years alone, corporate and investor funds to the tune of billions have poured into new primary care models.
Value-based and full-risk primary care networks take on the overall wellness of the patient, to prevent high cost catastrophic events. They want to be known for great outcomes
Subscription-based networks and new Medicare Advantage programs are turning payment models upside down.
CVS and Walgreens are both combining primary care clinics with their pharmacy business.
And a stunning flow of funding is going to the new digital health technologies that are supporting these new models. .
“We see today a movement which revalues primary care as a project of ongoing wellness”
We see today a movement which revalues primary care as a project of ongoing wellness, with frequent monitoring of biomarkers, holistic care of the body, including mental wellness and nutrition, and in some cases a different risk and payment model.
The rationale is compelling: pay attention to overall patient wellness now, and reduce the catastrophic costs later. “Stay well now, and stay out of the hospital later,“ as one provider puts it.
Providers are taking varying routes to this goal, but much is in common.
New technology
As part of this, we are also beginning to see in patient-facing medical technology the disruptive, industry-shaking potential of tech, just as it has shown in other parts of our culture and economy.
Of course, the tech poster child and a lifeline in the pandemic has been telehealth. Suddenly the term “Zoom“ is universally understood by patients and providers. For that reason, Hungry Monster has continued to help healthcare providers meld telehealth offerings into their websites and social media.
But telehealth on its own is only part of the story. Take it a step farther, and you can can see signs of much bigger things to come.
Connected care
Telehealth—variously called telemedicine, telecare, e-health— should rather be seen as part of a larger array of technologies sometimes called connected care or virtual care.
Both are umbrella terms for digital technologies ranging from the familiar fitness watch, to remote patient management systems, to more arcane software algorithms using artificial intelligence for predictive analysis.
And no, we don’t count out the literally thousands of smartphone apps supporting healthcare access, mental health, wellness, and much more.
These technologies are already in use by providers, some more intensively than others. In aggregate they are churning out lots and lots of data.
A connected care ecosystem?
Can these be integrated into an efficient support system for the new forms of primary care?
This would mean above all that they will need to be interoperable, generating integrated, standardized data. This is not yet the case, not at scale.
Still, it’s not unreasonable to envision a cohesive, connected medical ecosystem sooner than we may think. Embedded in such an ecosystem, telehealth could fully realize its potential. And the new primary care models fully empowered.
Will it happen?
That’s not yet clear. Healthcare, it’s safe to say, is complicated. And in the US, its outcomes have not been very good, relatively speaking. (See “US ranks last in healthcare among 11 wealthiest countries despite spending most,” in guardian.com of August 5, 2021).
Technology alone will not make the big changes in primary care, much less the US healthcare system as a whole, that clearly are needed. But with digital healthcare, in tandem with new approaches, such as value-based and full-risk healthcare provision, a fundamental change is absolutely thinkable.
Interested in digging deeper? Talk to an expert.