Here are six takeaways:
1. Virtual health solutions involve digital models that offer clinical care from a remote location.
2. Annual patient visits could benefit from virtual health solutions, like biometric devices, diagnostic engines and virtual medical assistants. Healthcare providers prepare for the visit before the patient arrives, compiling patient data and looking at various clinical options.
3. Accenture predicts primary care physicians could save an average of five minutes per visit if utilizing virtual health solutions. This time-saving translates into an economic value of $7 billion saved annually across the health system.
4. eVisits are also economically smart, with patients and physicians exchanging information via secure messaging. In hypertension management, for example, eVisits could save health systems $300 million annually.
5. Virtual health solutions also provide patients with the tools to manage their chronic conditions by themselves. Within the diabetes sector, self-management tools could save health systems about $2 billion annually.
6. By shifting more responsibility to technology, primary care physicians may focus on other tasks, freeing up their time and reducing the need for more physicians in the workforce. This helps with the physician shortage problem.
“This type of virtual health can boost the supply of primary care doctors, without adding or training professionals, at a time when there’s a projected shortage of 31,000 professionals expected in the next decade,” said Kaveh Safavi, MD, JD, global managing director, Accenture Health.
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