Department of Digital Health/Telehealth, University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Popul Health Manag. 2022 Feb;25(1):11-22. doi: 10.1089/pop.2021.0031. Epub 2021 May 25.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed health care, spurring a revolution in digital health technologies. Across the world, hundreds of thousands of health care systems are considering a central question: how do we connect with our patients? Digital health has been used as a stopgap in many cases to continue the essential functions of health systems. As the post-pandemic world and our "new normal" come into focus, further needs will have to be met with a digital patient interaction, with an eye toward value transformation. One barrier to fully leveraging digital tools is the lack of a framework for classifying the type of digital health care. This can limit our ability to design, deploy, evaluate, and communicate through digital means. This article presents 3 categories of digital health and their relationships to value metrics: (1) telehealth or direct care delivery, (2) digital access tools, and (3) digital monitoring. An evidence-based discussion reveals past successes, current promises, and future challenges in reducing defects in value through digital care. In the coming years, value transformation will become more crucial to the success of health care systems. By using the taxonomy in this article, health systems can better implement digital tools with a value-driven purpose. Defining the role of digital health in the post-pandemic world is needed to assist health systems and practices to build a bridge to value-based care.
新冠疫情永久改变了医疗保健行业，推动了数字医疗技术的革命。在全球范围内，数以十万计的医疗保健系统都在思考一个核心问题：我们如何与患者建立联系？在许多情况下，数字医疗已被用作权宜之计，以继续维持医疗系统的基本功能。随着后疫情时代和我们的“新常态”逐渐清晰，还需要通过数字化患者交互来满足进一步的需求，并着眼于价值转型。全面利用数字工具的一个障碍是缺乏对数字医疗类型进行分类的框架。这可能限制我们通过数字手段进行设计、部署、评估和沟通的能力。本文提出了数字医疗的 3 个类别及其与价值指标的关系：（1）远程医疗或直接护理交付，（2）数字接入工具，（3）数字监测。基于证据的讨论揭示了通过数字护理减少价值缺陷的过去成功、当前承诺和未来挑战。在未来几年，价值转型对于医疗保健系统的成功将变得更加重要。通过使用本文中的分类法，医疗系统可以更好地实施具有价值驱动目的的数字工具。需要定义数字医疗在后疫情时代的作用，以帮助医疗系统和实践建立通往基于价值的护理的桥梁。
