Findings from HCFO-Funded Study Featured in STAT

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Publication Date: 
October 6, 2016

In a piece for STAT, Shayla Love discusses a new digital medicine startup that aims to fill the coverage gaps that many cheaper insurance plans leave by replacing doctor visits with text messages and emails. She describes the model as a hybrid between companies that provide one-off video or phone chats and traditional doctors’ offices that offer virtual visits. Love notes that telemedicine is still new, referencing findings from a HCFO-funded study from R. Adams Dudley, University of California, San Francisco, that found quality of care varied greatly across companies providing virtual visits for common acute illnesses. Ateev Mehrotra, M.D., Harvard Medical School, adds that this model of care may be helpful for patients with a new medical problem or a need to navigate through many specialists, but it doesn’t make sense for all people. In his HCFO-funded study, Dudley and colleagues examined the processes and quality of virtual medical care for minor acute illnesses to inform stakeholders about monitoring and paying for virtual care and to identify ways to improve this model of care delivery.