Access to Connected Health in the Digital Age

For centuries, the concept of healthcare access has been dominated by a visit-based paradigm. The rise of the digital age has changed that. Between wearable devices, mobile applications, and telehealth, doctors and patients are thinking differently about how various health and medical services should be provided and received. Many no longer feel that it’s necessary for every patient-doctor interaction to take place within the confines of an actual doctor’s office. To address these technological and cultural shifts, Booz Allen Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kevin Vigilante, and Dr. Mohsin Khan, a Booz Allen life science expert, propose the concept of “dose-related” connected access to healthcare.

As they explain in an article recently published in the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, the connected access concept moves healthcare away from a binary model—in which patients either schedule a face-to-face visit or not—and towards a continuum of access styled to match the needs of each patient.

In this way, connected access is administered similarly to a pharmaceutical intervention. Just as pharmacies choose the right drug and administer it through the right channels, at the right dose, and the right intervals, connected access to healthcare would be administered by the right kind of provider, through the right communication modality, with appropriate frequency and timing for the needs of the patient. Providing alternatives to the visit-based paradigm is especially important in an era of increasing chronic illness, the authors explain.

This proposition, however, is about more than just increasing access to care. Connected access in a “dose” format would require a change in care model development, patient-provider interactions, and adjustments to communication, including channels, frequency, and what information is shared. With an uptick in patients requiring chronic care, the new model would alleviate the burdens of scheduling and traveling to in-person sessions, and allow more patients to get the correct amount of attention as determined by their individual circumstances.

The connected access paradigm is also about more than just provider access. Its implications extend to information access, too, and that access goes both ways. The patient seeks information, guidance, and shares their care preferences with their providers, while the provider seeks information and provides advice to the patient. To leverage digital-age innovations to achieve holistic connected access amidst rising rates of chronic disease, it's necessary to create a new care model using an updated care team that can pivot based on the right dose of access, through the right channel, and at the right time.