Accelerating the journey to whole-person care
As virtual care evolves and becomes more integrated into the healthcare system at large, adopting a whole-person approach emerges as a critical strategy to ensure value across the broader healthcare experience. But what does “whole person” truly mean? In his opening remarks at Forum 2022, Teladoc Health CEO Jason Gorevic detailed the challenges and opportunities of an industry in accelerated transition.
The five major trends driving changes in healthcare
Consumer expectations are shifting from narrow and transactional to holistic and longitudinal, which allows them to access high-quality care wherever and however they want it. The Teladoc Health vision of whole-person care is becoming a reality as more than half of buyers look for comprehensive, integrated solutions.
Financial markets are shifting quickly, with some healthcare startups cutting back on innovation and growth.
The integrity of the industry is being strengthened as opportunists that have had a negative impact on people’s health leave the virtual care space.
Acceleration is being driven by broader social and economic trends. Social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life mean that some people can reach their full health potential, and unfortunately, others can’t. The combination of an ongoing pandemic, a potential recession and continued social unrest has widened the care gap even further.
There’s a shift in the way people make decisions about healthcare, with a renewed focus on effectiveness and outcomes. Today, more people are looking to hybrid care to expand access and get the care they need.
While much has changed since the pandemic, what hasn’t changed is the importance of clinical quality and delivering clear value to as many people as possible.
That’s exactly what the Teladoc Health whole-person care model has been designed to deliver. We’re a lot closer to achieving true whole-person care today, and the market appears ready for it. In fact, the Teladoc Health Virtual Care Transformation Model [JM1] shows that 70% of employers are planning to fully implement or be close to implementing a whole-person virtual care strategy in the next three years, yet only about 20% of organizations have fully deployed holistic virtual care solutions.
What is whole-person care?
Teladoc Health defines a whole-person care delivery model as one that addresses a person’s physical and mental needs—as well as socioeconomic factors—to help people live healthier lives. It’s a seamlessly integrated, hybrid care experience—one that’s designed from the ground up to be virtually native, connected, personalized and frictionless.
The benefits of whole-person care are clear—for consumers, providers, health plans and employers.
For consumers who are tired of limited point solutions, whole-person care allows access to a portfolio of solutions so they can make the health and wellness choices that are right for them.
For providers, whole-person care gives hospitals and health systemsthe opportunity to improve their access to care, lower the cost of care and deliver better outcomes.
For health plans and employers, whole-person care offers a more comprehensive portfolio of solutions to their members and employees, lowering costs and improving outcomes.
The partnership opportunity
An increasing number of organizations are looking for a single partner that can deliver on the possibilities of virtual care. Importantly, those partnerships must be able to evolve. Going forward, every organization will need to find a partner that can grow and change with them. Because the world isn’t standing still, virtual care shouldn’t either.
How Teladoc Health is delivering real value through results, innovation and equity
Our model allows us to have the greatest impact on the greatest number of people across the greatest number of care needs. And at Teladoc Health, we do it by focusing on three things: results, innovation and equity.
Results
Teladoc Health uses data science to combine insight gleaned from health data with personal preferences to help people address their healthcare needs.
The data we generate through our whole-person care model also helps us anticipate risk factors for chronic conditions such as diabetes. For example, one study shows that people with both diabetes and hypertension who used our comprehensive chronic care approach saw a sustained, clinically significant reduction in blood pressure after only four weeks and even more progress after 12 weeks.
This data is exciting, and it affirms what we’ve always believed: that treating a whole person—as opposed to different parts of that person—really is the best way to keep them healthy.
Innovation
Our approach to innovation focuses on unlocking the promise of whole-person care for buyers and consumers through a model that is virtually native, data-driven and purpose-built for the intersection of healthcare and technology.
Our pace of innovation is accelerating. Today, we’re making the largest investments in innovation in our history, with more than $400 million devoted to research and development. All of this is being built on our whole-person platform that will integrate data, care models, benefits management and the consumer experience—creating value far greater than the sum of its parts.
Equity
At Teladoc Health, our investments reflect the commitment to make equity a foundation across all our services. More than half of the people who actively use our chronic care solutions live in vulnerable or underserved communities. And almost 60% of the people who use our primary care offering Primary360 haven’t seen a doctor in the last two years.
Through data, we’ll be making it easier to provide a broader range of demographic, ethnographic and social determinants of health data for U.S. members. And we’ll also expand our ability to report on the data being collected by our care providers. All of this will lead to higher quality care and a better experience for customers.
We’ve made enormous progress on accelerating the journey to whole-person care, and we’re getting closer all the time.
Don’t miss a single moment from the event. Get more insights on the future of virtual care from Forum 2022.