Dive Brief:
- NewYork-Presbyterian has announced on Tuesday a new fleet of digital health services to help expand patient care.
- The telehealth services also hope to extend access of their physicians across its network.
- The digital NYP OnDemand suite will include tools relating to second opinions, urgent care, consultations, and follow-up appointments. The first service available for patients is NYP OnDemand Second Opinion, which was kickstarted this summer in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and ColumbiaDoctors.
Dive Insight:
On demand healthcare is so hot right now. As a Rock Health report last November pointed out, funding for such services has increased over the years with a total of $692 million since 2011. Earlier this year, an Accenture report estimated the on-demand healthcare product investment would explode to more than $1 billion in 2017 from $250 million this year.
As previously reported, insurers are looking to increase telemedicine services to ease provider shortages and expand care access. For example, Teladoc (who has received $245 million in funding according to Accenture) is working with 28 health plans on such efforts. NYP's entrance into the on-demand services race could help to mitigate the middle-digital-person with providers going forward.
With more than two million patients seen annually by about 29,000 healthcare professionals, NYP's service is setting itself up to free up workloads and capture some revenue as state medical boards are developing telehealth regs. As of last December, in the state of New York telemedicine requirements include an established relationship but allow physical exams/relationship to be established via telemedicine, according to the American Telemedicine Association.
"At NewYork-Presbyterian, we are looking to redefine the intersection of technology and healthcare and our new digital health platform is our way of strengthening traditional telehealth services," said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian in a prepared statement.
NYP OnDemand is comprised of telehealth services for both patients and providers, available on the NewYork-Presbyterian website and mobile app, and will ultimately include:
- Digital Second Opinion: NewYork-Presbyterian specialists from both ColumbiaDoctors and Weill Cornell Medicine can now offer second opinions to patients around the country via an online portal.
- Inter-hospital Digital Consults: Consultations seek to provide more access to specialty care for patients across the New York City metro region.
- Digital Emergency and Urgent Care: As part of a new pilot program, visitors to the Lisa Perry Emergency Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell now have the option of a virtual visit through real-time video interactions with a clinician after having an initial triage and medical screening exam. This will be done in a private room with a webcam/monitor. For any non-emergency conditions that require expedited treatment, patients will eventually also be able to access a separate virtual urgent care service from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell doctors.
- Digital Follow-Up Appointments: Launching this fall, patients will be given a virtual follow-up option.
The suite of services was developed by NewYork-Presbyterian's Innovation Center.