Becker's Hospital Review

30 INNOVATION 3 biggest digital health questions of 2022 By Naomi Diaz R ené Quashie, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for digital health at the Consumer Technology Association, shared the three most pressing digital health questions of 2022 in a Jan. 5 Politico article. 1. If COVID-19 regulations are relaxed, what happens to telemedicine and digital health? CMS has waived certain requirements for licens- ing and telemedicine since the beginning of the pandemic, and HIPAA regulations also were loosened for some digital tools, accord- ing to Politico. When the public health crisis begins to subside, that may leave the future use of telehealth and digital care tools up in the air. "What kind of penetration are [these tools] going to have in the healthcare market?" Mr. Quashie asked. "How is the healthcare system going to integrate all these new technology-en- abled solutions within their practices, within their clinical workflows?" 2. Will remote patient-monitoring close the divide on health equity issues? Mr. Quashie said that without a robust way to remotely monitor patients' chronic illnesses, "we're really not going to make a dent in the health equity conversation." Mr. Quashie said remote patient-monitoring tools geared toward underserved communities that take digital literacy and other factors into account will be "absolutely key to watch." 3. What happens to mental health technology as the U.S. enters the pandemic's third year? Mr. Quashie told Politico that more focus on technologies such as telemedicine, augment- ed reality and mindfulness apps might be able to bridge the gap between the shortage of mental health clinicians and the number of people seeking mental health support. n Mayo, Kaiser among companies investing $110M into 'hospital- at-home' venture By Georgina Gonzalez M edically Home, a "hospital-at-home" com- pany, received $110 million in a funding round from investors including Baxter International, Cardinal Health, Global Medical Re- sponse, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. Cardinal Health, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Perma- nente all provided additional capital on top of existing investments in the company, according to a Jan. 10 news release. Medically Home provides health systems with the elements required to care for patients at home, including platform technology, reimbursement models and clinical protocols. More than 7,000 patients have already been treated using the Medically Home platform. Medically Home CEO Rami Karjian said he sees the investment as a product of a broader industry-wide shift. "The accelerating decentralization of high acuity care from hospitals and other institutional sites to an ever-increasing number of patient's homes enabled by Medically Home, validates the im- portance of an ecosystem of health care partners working together on behalf of patients and the clinicians that care for them across the country," he said in the press release. n Kaiser digital chief on the 3 waves of healthcare innovation, importance of digital experiences By Georgina Gonzalez E ven in 2016, 52 percent of visits to Kaiser Permanente were virtual. A leader in digital innovation, Chief Digital Officer Prat Vemana discussed how the Oakland, Calif.-based system cen- ters patient experience in its digital growth, VentureBeat reported. Mr. Vemana sees healthcare innovation as happening in three waves, the first being the advent of EHRs, the second as digitization of physical processes and the third as a digital-first experience that puts the patient first. The first and second waves still have many analog components and mostly center on workflow issues, making the lives of medical professionals more streamlined. The third wave is what he is focus- ing on at Kaiser Permanente — a digital experience that focuses on patient experience. "We're starting with the patient and working backward," he told Ven- tureBeat in December 2021. "What we're shifting is how we can take the data and intelligence and make it valuable for patients to man- age their own health and wellness." To assist clinical teams, Mr. Vemana and his team created a pool of patient data and organized it effectively. He ensured that the team was interdisciplinary. "We started to bring physicians and technologists together to de- fine the key results and metrics, train the teams, and align the use of data with our value-based care operational model," Mr. Vemana said. "Now we can assess a patient's condition, navigate them to the right intervention, and provide the right level of guidance." He said that although the system is very successful at digitally en- abled health, there is room for improvement. n

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