Many of us in the world of health IT saw how the future of healthcare was going to be virtual. The challenge I always had was seeing how we’d actually get there. The financial incentives weren’t in place and still today many of the approaches to virtual don’t actually benefit the doctor who provides the care. That’s a big problem. Of course, COVID blew all this up and opened everyone’s eyes to what could be done virtually.
Now that COVID changed so many perspectives when it came to virtual care, we’re going to spend the next couple years figuring out the details. And there are a lot of details and nuance when it comes to virtual care.
One company that was a bit ahead of the curve on this is Omada Health. As a provider of healthcare services, from the beginning they started with a virtual-first approach to care. Incorporating virtual into the care they provide is just part of their DNA as a company. To learn from their experience, I sat down with Sean Duffy, Co-Founder and CEO at Omada Health, to understand more about what they’ve learned when it comes to virtual care and what it means to be a virtual-first company.
One thing that Duffy highlighted in the interview was the reality that a virtual-first company isn’t a virtual only company. Omada Health doesn’t see virtual as a replacement for humans. Instead, it’s about allowing humans to work at the top of their licensure and let the digital replace the mundane aspects of care.
A great example of this is the work that Omada Health is doing with MSK (musculoskeletal) issues as part of their acquisition of a company called Physera. While many would look at PT (Physical Therapy) as a place that shouldn’t be virtual first, they’re showing that it’s possible. From a tech perspective, they can check for proper technique using a form of computer vision, but they can also scale how many patients they can support and track at the same time. This is something Duffy highlights as being essential given the shortage of doctors we were facing before the pandemic and are facing even more now.
Duffy also shares a bit about their upcoming conference called Mindset. He shared how a different mindset is needed to improve healthcare and make virtual care a reality. If you’re interested in that mindset shift, be sure to check out their free virtual first chronic care summit.
If you’re interested in virtual care and want to learn more about how Omada Health is approaching it and a view into what the future of virtual care looks like, you’ll enjoy this interview with Sean Duffy from Omada Health.
Learn more about Omada Health: https://www.omadahealth.com/
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