How Embracing Technology Creates New Entryways for Inclusive Health Care

The following is a guest article by Ganesh Ramratan, Chief Information Officer at MetroPlusHealth.

Amidst an uptick in utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth services have emerged at the forefront of reshaping how we look at patient care. While this is an excellent and much-needed step toward expanding the role of technology in health care, it may not be enough. Our care system will continue to miss the mark on providing proactive treatment if it does not use these tools to create more accessible, equitable and holistic care for all.

It is no secret that there is room for improvement in our health care system. With a reactionary approach to care, health issues are often addressed after developing symptoms that progress toward becoming problematic. Then, there are multiple barriers preventing certain groups from accessing quality care. These include unaffordable coverage for low-income communities and experiences of racism and discrimination that contribute to a mistrust of the system among racial and ethnic groups. Lastly, the fear of stigma prevents those living with mental health conditions from seeking help.

To help bridge the gap toward providing equitable care, health care providers require a complete understanding of the conditions that their patients live within. This involves looking at a person’s environmental conditions, such as housing, job security and availability of fresh produce in their neighborhood and using technology as a tool to reduce the social determinants of health that many Americans face.

It is more important than ever to adapt and evolve with new approaches that contribute to inclusive care. Listed below are some examples of how technology can help remove barriers to providing more proactive, personalized and accessible care.

Embrace Telehealth for the Long-Term

Accelerating the adoption of telehealth services in our country during the pandemic lowered some of the barriers that underrepresented groups encountered in accessing care. And by offering treatments using data, mobile technology, wearable medical devices, and telehealth, interacting with health professionals remotely helped reduce some of the hesitations that some populations face with in-person visits. A recent study found that 43% of adults want to continue to use telehealth services after the pandemic, and 34% prefer telehealth to in-person office visits.

Healthcare providers now can offer new ways of thinking and use these advancements even more intentionally. It creates the ability to leverage the connectivity of digital technology to establish a data-informed care model that covers an individual’s full range of needs – integrating body, mind and social issues.

Use Mobile Technology to Establish Two-Way Conversations

MetroPlusHealth partnered with Amazon in 2020 to create bidirectional SMS for mobile outreach to New York City’s most vulnerable populations. MetroPlusHealth wanted to hear directly from those who required increased care over the last twenty months to understand the resources they needed to help inform the treatment course for individuals with housing, food and other services.

Initiating this two-way conversation through text messages with multiple members over numerous touchpoints enabled MetroPlusHealth to capture valuable data that made the care strategy clear. The data determined the immediate needs for the communities MetroPlusHealth serves.

Proactively Determine the Course of Treatment with Holistic Data

Meeting people via text message conversations is just one part of a cohesive system that uses technology to understand each member better. Sometimes individuals seek treatment for their behavioral health needs – mental health, psychiatric, addictions treatment and more – from different facilities and providers. Without having a holistic view of a member’s care journey when they seek care, the chance of treating only a percentage of their full scope of requirements is greater. Standing up technology that establishes a 360-degree view of care plan members’ health is essential for proactively determining an individual’s course of treatment.

Coinciding with a nearly 85% increase in MetroPlusHealth members’ use of telehealth for behavioral health needs during the pandemic, MetroPlusHealth transitioned to in-house behavioral health services. A solution that offers its members a more effective, holistic care experience will result in improved medical and mental health outcomes for members. MetroPlusHealth now enlists and collaborates with its network of primary care physicians (PCPs) to identify behavioral health issues at the front lines. This triggers an informed opportunity for PCPs to become more acutely aware of their patient’s behavioral health challenges and effectively start recovery as soon as possible.

The future of health care starts with the decisions we make today. Changing the way patients access health care would mean using technology to understand better how to provide solutions to barriers that prevent individuals from getting the better health they require. A greater reliance on existing technologies and advancements in artificial intelligence to better understand data will help ensure that equitable systems are embedded within the American care infrastructure.

About Ganesh Ramratan

Ganesh Ramratan is Chief Information Officer (CIO) for MetroPlusHealth, where he is responsible for the organization’s information systems and their security, and for ensuring organizational collaboration. He is also charged with driving IT innovation, while enhancing the member and provider experience through critical technology solutions.

Ganesh comes to MetroPlusHealth from the NYC Department of Investigations (DOI), where, since 2013, as CIO and Deputy Commissioner, he oversaw the agency’s Information Technology unit and, through his successful initiatives, led an overhaul of DOI’s use of technology, significantly strengthening and modernizing its IT infrastructure. Prior to joining DOI, he worked for the Department of Information Technology and NYC’s Department of Transportation. He began his career in City government in 1994 with the New York City Transit Authority.

   

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