Best of Telehealth Tuesday 2024

The Problem in Healthcare Is Not the Lack of Innovation

Rather, the problem is the ineptitude of healthcare leaders and digital health vendors to ensure and create meaningful, valuable, and sustainable adoption of innovative services and solutions. One of our most popular articles, The Problem in Healthcare Is Not the Lack of Innovation, explains why this is a problem and how it can be fixed.

For more information, you can read our collection of articles on “Innovation in Healthcare” and, speaking about innovation, “AI in Healthcare”.

Optimizing Telehealth

A big theme for Telehealth Tuesday in 2024 (and coincidentally also our core expertise) were articles diving deeper into the art and science of getting more use out of telehealth through optimization.

While most healthcare organizations have dabbled in telehealth, very few are currently taking full advantage of all the benefits that telehealth has to offer.

The first article on this topic, 6 Smart Moves to Optimize Telehealth, describes 6 strategic moves healthcare leaders can undertake to increase the strategic, financial, and clinical value from telehealth.

A high-quality telehealth experience depends on well-designed and implemented workflows. This was the focus of the next article, which delves into the Science of Telehealth Optimization.

Happy Day Scenario Process Design dives deep into one of my alltime favorite tactics: the design of workflows with an initial disciplined focus on what should happen 80%, 90% of the time.

While Telehealth is (mostly) not about Technology, a good video visit experience relies on a technology solution that is easy to use, reliable, and secure. Many of our clients asked themselves in 2024 whether the solution they have is really the best fit for their needs.

In response, Telehealth Tuesday’s collection on “Vendor Selection” and this first article of a series on Video Visit Vendor Selection focused on Defining Needs and Requirements, whereas the subsequent articles focused on the gathering of the requirements and the actual selection of the vendor.

Remote Physiological Monitoring (RPM)

Building on the theme of optimization, remote physiological monitoring (RPM) also captured increased attention this year.

Over the past three years, much has been talked about this second main branch of telehealth (beyond video visits) and its potential to reduce overall cost of care.

While oftentimes the focus is on the selection of the monitoring equipment or the validation of reimbursement, I was surprised to see how the article For RPM Success, Workflows are Key bubbled to the top of our list of most read articles in 2024.

Maybe it’s due to the many false starts and/or the realization that digital health adoption is really about the rollout of new or enhanced workflows.

For more information on RPM, here are eight articles (and counting) on Remote Physiological Monitoring.

Telehealth is One Strong Solution to the Rural Health Crisis

As many Telehealth Tuesday readers know, our focus for many years has been on rural health — from health systems in Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, and Texas to FQHCs and RHCs in Vermont, Virginia, and Washington state.

In 2024 Telehealth Tuesday added four more articles on “Fixing Rural Health with Telehealth” to our collection and this particular article about our 3 ½ year project in rural Washington state illustrates what is possible with a multi-pronged approach that embraces multiple stakeholders to Transform Access to Care in Rural America.

One core element of that approach is the focus on creating community access points, such as those in libraries. The article Telehealth in Libraries: Read a Book, See a Doc (an updated repost from 2022) also made it to the top 8 articles in 2024, showing strong interest in this innovative approach with multiple values beyond healthcare.

Happy 5th Birthday, Telehealth Tuesday

Last but not least, in October Telehealth Tuesday celebrated its 5th Birthday and in this special edition, I laid out the genesis and process of Telehealth Tuesday.

What will be Rife in 2025?

As always, we are looking ahead toward an interesting year in telehealth in 2025.

First, there is, in the US, the continued “kicking the can down the road game” that congress is playing with the telehealth provisions. With the new incoming administration promising sweeping and swift changes and to cut through the bureaucratic jungle, there may be new, permanent telehealth policies possible.

Secondly, Generative Healthcare AI will continue to transform care delivery for clinicians and patients alike — from care documentation, visit preparation, and diagnosis to treatment planning, treatment evaluation, post-visit “digestion”, etc.

Thirdly, the healthcare needs and the reimbursement & technical environment is increasingly pushing towards making 2025 the year of Remote Physiological Monitoring (RPM) to get the growing pandemic of co-morbidities under control.

To discuss these and many other topics, make sure to put a note on your calendar for “every third Thursday from 11 AM to 2 PM Eastern” to join us for one or more sessions each month at Telehealth T-Time: A Community for Telehealth Enthusiasts, where we bring you the latest from the front lines of telehealth and digital health.