In this episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy are joined by Dr. Laura Purdy, CEO and Co-Founder of MD Integrations. The group discuss different approaches towards Telehealth and the future of digital healthcare.
Here is what they discussed:
- “So how did you first get involved with telehealth?”
- This episode starts with the introduction of Dr. Laura Purdy. Dr. Purdy started her medical career in the army, where she realized early on that telehealth will be the future for healthcare.
- “So when did you realize that telehealth could be the future?”
- Even before the pandemic Dr. Purdy realized the benefit and future applications telehealth could bring to provide better patient care. She discusses medical challenges see saw early in her career, such as scheduling and wait times, that could have been solved using telehealth.
- “What was telehealth like before mainstream technology came around?”
- Nowadays telehealth can be achieved using the multitude of digital apps such as Zoom, however prior to these technologies existing, it was done very differently. Dr. Purdy discusses how telehealth was achieved prior to these new technologies. She talks on challenges such as limited technology, system requirements, connection issues, and scheduling conflicts.
- “Let’s jump into what MD Integrations does.”
- MD Integrations is an all-in-one telehealth solution. Outsourcing telehealth needs, they provide a complete and flexible telehealth solution for companies who want to offer virtual healthcare. Dr. Purdy addresses issues she saw when it came to telehealth and how she created MD Integrations to help solve those issues, such as EMRs. EMRs are not designed for telehealth services, as they are still designed for brick and mortar providers.
- “Where do you see telehealth going in the future? Are people preferring to use synchronous or asynchronous services?”
- When the pandemic started, telehealth visits skyrocketed. However over the past 6 months, telehealth visits has dropped dramatically. Dr. Purdy explains that patients would rather use the asynchronous portion of telehealth over synchronous. Just as with other industries, people prefer not to have to attend a face to face visit. She then talks on where synchronous services are applicable, such as Pediatrics.
- “Why are there so many different telehealth providers and what differentiates them from each other?”
- Vik asks why there are so many niche telehealth companies springing up when there are telehealth giants such as Teledoc and Livingo. Dr. Purdy explains in detail the reason behind need for niche telehealth companies and why this market does not need to depend only on the telehealth giants.
- “In terms of patient data, how do you get access to the data you need?”
- The group then jumps in the integration challenges related to Telehealth and how to overcome challenge of access to data from health system, clinic, telehealth portals.
Listen to the full episode:
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