Reinventing virtual care: Bridging the healthcare system and citizen silos to create an integrated future

Abstract

The pandemic has accelerated the move to virtual care. This has included remote monitoring and implementation of technologies that allow for patient care at home and assisted living for ageing in place. Technologies are available to help consumers to maintain their health and wellness. However, challenges associated with implementing virtual care remain. In this article, we describe some of these challenges, along with the need to develop new models for promoting effective and sustainable virtual care. This includes the need for integration of institutional efforts (eg, government and hospital) with emerging access to commercially available home technologies supplied to patients and citizens. The authors argue that consideration of a personal digital ecosystem and its relation to institutional digital health ecosystems is critical. The authors suggest virtual care be considered in the combined context of the person and healthcare system. Implications for future research directions for virtual care are discussed.

Digital health as an enabler for hospital@home: A rising trend or just a vision?

“…Thus, the optimization of limited resources in hospitals becomes possible through hospital@home care models (26). A cost-intensive hospital infrastructure can be reduced using hospital@home or the patient's own technologies could be integrated into a hospital@home model to reduce costs (56). This is the case as more and more individuals are buying consumer technologies to support aging in the home.…”

“…Integration of the individual digital ecosystem with the institutional digital health ecosystem would be beneficial (56). Thus far, the healthcare technology infrastructures are still siloed and disconnected.…”

Health technology, quality and safety in a learning health system

“…technology-induced errors) emerged. 6 , 10 Researchers identified that as we introduce new technologies, we now need to recognize the following: (1) technology is part of a digital health ecosystem 15 ; (2) technology leads to the creation of new healthcare processes that can introduce new types of errors (i.e. technology-induced errors) (see Table 1 ); and (3) technology-induced errors can propagate throughout a digital health ecosystem (i.e.…”

“…The IOM identified that “safe implementation of health IT is a complex, dynamic process that requires a shared responsibility between vendors and healthcare organizations.” 4 Today, healthcare has become even more complex with a growing number of new technologies aimed at healthcare consumers and health organizations coming to market. 15 In addition to this, health technologies (software, hardware, and medical devices) are increasingly becoming integrated across the healthcare system providing data and information that needs to be understood by health professionals and citizens so that effective health decisions are made (via devices such as phones and wearable sensors). 15 - 20 Today’s healthcare system is highly dependent on technology for its effectiveness, efficiency, and safety.…”

“…15 In addition to this, health technologies (software, hardware, and medical devices) are increasingly becoming integrated across the healthcare system providing data and information that needs to be understood by health professionals and citizens so that effective health decisions are made (via devices such as phones and wearable sensors). [15][16][17][18][19][20] Today's healthcare system is highly dependent on technology for its effectiveness, efficiency, and safety. Health technologies are now an integral part of our digital health ecosystem.…”