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Green Key Unlocked: The Future of Telemedicine & Virtual Healthcare

05Jul
Green KeyGeneral Interest, Healthcare, Information Technology

On May 11th, the COVID-19 pandemic Public Health Emergency (PHE) was declared over. Throughout the pandemic, the healthcare industry adapted to the many transitions and struggles needed in order to sustain emergency responses. One of many was the demand for new digital strategies, which has since resulted in telemedicine, at-home testing, and prescription deliveries. Digital health held a record-breaking year in 2021, banking $21.9 billion, but now that the PHE has come to an end, what is in store for telehealth?

Many believe telemedicine will continue to make strides, however, we will likely see some limitations in places that were previously more flexible. For instance, prescribing prescriptions over the phone or Internet, without an in-person consultation might come to an end. There is also an issue with accessibility, many patients may not have access to a private internet connection, especially those older in age or living in low-income environments.

Nevertheless, telemedicine as a whole will definitely remain in play for many acute and chronic conditions. Because of these adaptations, new and current healthcare professionals will certainly be required to participate in additional training and adjust to learning curves when it pertains to logistics. As telehealth continues to advance, its influence on the healthcare industry will also grow. The United States remains the leading market in telehealth services, as more and more states update their healthcare laws accordingly. This is especially beneficial to patients who are either too sick or physically impaired to visit an office in-person.

Technology has changed the game in more ways than one in almost every industry, but it is completely evolving the healthcare sector. Its influence is one to continue adjusting to as the years progress. If you’re interested in a career in healthcare, connect with us on LinkedIn or browse our open jobs!

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COVID-19 Puts Spotlight On Adaptive Clinical Trials

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One of the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be the accelerated acceptance of adaptive clinical trials.

Dr. Anthony Fauci endorsed adaptive trials when he announced the effectiveness of redelivering in treating COVID-19 patients.

“The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recover,” Fauci said in a White House briefing April 29.

The data came from a unique type of clinical trial launched in February and sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases where Fauci is director. The Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) is different from classical clinical trials in that researchers can make changes in dosing, patients and other parts of the study as the data accumulates.

That’s why, not quite two months into the study, Fauci was able to declare remdesivir effective in reducing recovery time for COVID-19 patients. Discussing the trial findings up to that point, Fauci said, “What [the trial] has proven is that a drug can block this virus.”

Adaptive clinical trial design is common in testing medical devices, but much less so in testing drugs and new therapies. Those tests are almost exclusively designed as randomized clinical trials (RCT) in which subjects are divided into at least two groups, with one receiving the new drug and a second a placebo. It’s a double-blind test meaning neither the patient nor the clinical researchers know who is getting what. Once underway, only in the rarest of situations can the process depart from the trial’s original design.

Though considered the gold standard for testing the efficacy and safety of new drugs, the RCT design has been criticized for its cost, duration and inflexibility. As long ago as 2004 the Food and Drug Administration announced a Critical Path Initiative to accelerate drug development. “Modernizing Clinical Trial Designs and Strategies” was one of the programs.

At the end of last year, the FDA issued an industry guidance for pharmaceutical and bioscience firms “on the appropriate use of adaptive designs for clinical trials.”

The guidance notes,

“Adaptive designs can provide a variety of advantages over non-adaptive designs. These advantages arise from the fundamental property of clinical trials with an adaptive design: they allow the trial to adjust to information that was not available when the trial began.

While the ACTT, first launched at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and now involving 68 sites, and other adaptive COVID-19 trials now underway are showing they can deliver results, adaptive trials are unlikely to any time soon – or ever — become the new standard for drug testing.

Dr. Adams Dudley, a drug safety expert at UC San Francisco, told the Los Angeles Times, it’s risky to allow companies with a financial stake in the outcome to change study rules during a trial. However, in a crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic, Dudley said randomized clinical trials take too long.

Noted the Times, “With thousands of people dying every day of COVID-19, the deliberate pace of this gold standard research may not be the best way to end the crisis quickly.”

Photo by Viki Mohamad on Unsplash

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The Unsung Heroes of the Pandemic

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Nurses and doctors who treat patients with COVID-19 are rightfully celebrated as heroes of the pandemic. First responders, hospital orderlies, janitors, housekeepers and medical workers playing a support role in the fight against the virus are being cheered loudly and publicly and on social media posts worldwide.

Those are the ones we see and hear about daily. Yet there is another group of professionals laboring behind the scenes, often remotely, whose vital work goes unsung. These are the case managers — nurses or social workers in most cases — who, explains Wil Shelton, “coordinate with physicians, nurses, mental health and insurance companies, and family and friends of the patient, their client.”

His wife is one.

“Case managers are in a battle behind the scenes, huddling daily to plan for the next six months. But mostly these men and women are alone, hunched over computers in trenches of their bedrooms or living rooms, making frantic phone calls, staying focused on the needs of patients even when their families need them, too.”

In just one week, Shelton says, his wife helped cancer patients unable to see their oncologist because offices are closed. She worked with the family of a 2-year-old asthma patient discharged home because his doctor’s office, too, was closed. Then there were the terminally ill patients who contracted COVIC-19 and had to be isolated from family when, he notes sadly, “time with them matters most.”

That doesn’t even include the administrative tasks like finding an empty bed, handling records, tracking patients and hunting down busier-than-ever doctors and nurses.

“All of these situations bring tears, confusion, fear, and loss — all of which my wife, and case managers like her, are supposed to alleviate from a remote location with little support and in the middle of a system plagued by glitches and breakdowns,” says Shelton.

“Please,” he ends his post, speaking to all of us, “Be kind to your case worker. He or she is making a great sacrifice to ensure the best outcome for you.”

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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