Be There with Virtual Care When Your Patients Need You Most

Our worlds have been transformed over the last year.  Just as our daily lives have been transformed, so has access to healthcare.  Patients, more than ever, need to know that they have access to care. There has been a lot of water under the bridge, and few of us have not had feet in these waters, however murky they may be. In the face of contradictory and confusing messaging, the need for trust has never been stronger, and the need for trust in the clinician/patient relationship is strong and sometimes illusive.

Telehealth and remote patient monitoring, the current foundations of what is now known as virtual care, are inextricably tied to this new world. They can be vital tools to strengthening or even re-establishing trust. These tools are not a substitute for the nostalgic human touch, but a tool to maintain some form of connection even when normal modes of communication are lost. As most of us felt the specter of quarantine creep into our lives in some fashion over the last several months, the offerings of digital technology to health became an expectation. Whether one recognizes it or not, there are many patients that will never feel secure without some form of connection to their clinicians through a digital form. Embracing digital health is not an abandonment of old ideals, but a method of preserving them through hardships that most of us never imagined we would see in our lifetimes. 

Virtual care is undeniably a skill and takes work to perfect. Skills have to be developed by the clinician, the practice, and the patient. Eventually, there will be entire fields of medical training devoted to this area. For now, we must learn together, as a community, weathering the bumps together.  In the end, hybrid models of care will emerge, that combine the best of virtual care with the best of in-person clinical care.  Through this journey, healthcare will become stronger.