Subject(s)
COVID-19/therapy , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Services Accessibility/legislation & jurisprudence , Medical Oncology/legislation & jurisprudence , Neoplasms/therapy , State Medicine/legislation & jurisprudence , Waiting Lists , COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19/economics , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/economics , Government Regulation , Health Care Costs , Health Policy/economics , Health Services Accessibility/economics , Humans , Medical Oncology/economics , Neoplasms/diagnosis , Neoplasms/economics , Policy Making , State Medicine/economics , United KingdomABSTRACT
While use of telemedicine to guide emergent treatment of ischemic stroke is well established, the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the rapid expansion of care via telemedicine to provide consistent care while reducing patient and provider exposure and preserving personal protective equipment. Temporary changes in re-imbursement, inclusion of home office and patient home environments, and increased access to telehealth technologies by patients, health care staff and health care facilities were key to provide an environment for creative and consistent high-quality stroke care. The continuum of care via telestroke has broadened to include prehospital, inter-facility and intra-facility hospital-based services, stroke telerehabilitation, and ambulatory telestroke. However, disparities in technology access remain a challenge. Preservation of reimbursement and the reduction of regulatory burden that was initiated during the public health emergency will be necessary to maintain expanded patient access to the full complement of telestroke services. Here we outline many of these initiatives and discuss potential opportunities for optimal use of technology in stroke care through and beyond the pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Continuity of Patient Care , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated , Ischemic Stroke/therapy , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care , Telemedicine , Continuity of Patient Care/economics , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/economics , Fee-for-Service Plans , Health Care Costs , Healthcare Disparities , Humans , Insurance, Health, Reimbursement , Ischemic Stroke/diagnosis , Ischemic Stroke/economics , Occupational Health , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care/economics , Patient Safety , Telemedicine/economicsABSTRACT
The evolution of healthcare, together with the changing behaviour of healthcare professionals, means that medical affairs functions of pharmaceutical organisations are constantly reinventing themselves. The emergence of digital ways of working, expedited by the COVID-19 pandemic, means that pharmaceutical-healthcare relationships are evolving to operate in an increasingly virtual world. The value of the pharmaceutical medical affairs function is dependent on understanding customers' needs and providing the right knowledge at the right time to physicians. This requires a human-centric artificial intelligence (AI) approach for medical affairs, which allows the function to query internal and external data sets in a conversational format and receive timely, accurate and concise intelligence on their customers.
Subject(s)
Artificial Intelligence , COVID-19/therapy , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/organization & administration , Information Management/organization & administration , Communication , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/economics , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/standards , Health Personnel , Humans , Information Management/economics , Information Management/standards , Outcome Assessment, Health Care , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Importance: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has burdened health care resources and disrupted care of patients with cancer. Virtual care (VC) represents a potential solution. However, few quantitative data support its rapid implementation and positive associations with service capacity and quality. Objective: To examine the outcomes of a cancer center-wide virtual care program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study applied a hospitalwide agile service design to map gaps and develop a customized digital solution to enable at-scale VC across a publicly funded comprehensive cancer center. Data were collected from a high-volume cancer center in Ontario, Canada, from March 23 to May 22, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Outcome measures were care delivery volumes, quality of care, patient and practitioner experiences, and cost savings to patients. Results: The VC solution was developed and launched 12 days after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 22â¯085 VC visits (mean, 514 visits per day) were conducted, comprising 68.4% (range, 18.8%-100%) of daily visits compared with 0.8% before launch (P < .001). Ambulatory clinic volumes recovered a month after deployment (3714-4091 patients per week), whereas chemotherapy and radiotherapy caseloads (1943-2461 patients per week) remained stable throughout. No changes in institutional or provincial quality-of-care indexes were observed. A total of 3791 surveys (3507 patients and 284 practitioners) were completed; 2207 patients (82%) and 92 practitioners (72%) indicated overall satisfaction with VC. The direct cost of this initiative was CAD$ 202â¯537, and displacement-related cost savings to patients totaled CAD$ 3â¯155â¯946. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that implementation of VC at scale at a high-volume cancer center may be feasible. An agile service design approach was able to preserve outpatient caseloads and maintain care quality, while rendering high patient and practitioner satisfaction. These findings may help guide the transformation of telemedicine in the post COVID-19 era.