CREJ

Page 6 — Health Care & Life Sciences Quarterly — April 2022 www.crej.com GHPhipps.com | 303.571.5377 INSPIRE • LEAD • DELIVER HEALTH CARE B eep. Beep. Stacey, you’re a bit dehydrated and should drink a glass of water. Beep. Beep. Stacey, your resting heart rate this morn- ing is right where it should be. Get- ting back to your exercise routine last month is paying off! Beep. Beep. Stacey, you haven’t been sleeping well this past week. Do you want me to make another appoint- ment with your therapist? Aside from a watch that reminds me to step away from my desk every hour, I don’t own anything that beeps to update me with these messages – yet. I initially resisted owning a cell- phone as well and then held on to my old flip phone for far too long. Yet we’ve collectively – finally – embraced telehealth over the past two years. Certainly years-old con- cerns over reimbursement, privacy and security were mostly resolved through the pandemic, and telehealth has shifted from a tool of necessity to a tool of choice for some people. Substituting telehealth visits for face-to-face visits has been valuable for managing in-person patient vol- umes. In our industry, the discussion has centered around the impact to space planning and building square footage – considerations for fewer exam rooms and quieter, smaller physician spaces with perfect tech- nology. Of course, there always will be instances where telehealth doesn’t work well, but that’s not the point. The intersection of technology and health can be so much more. Let’s shift the conversation to mobile health, also called “mHealth.” Think of it this way. Telehealth is akin to printing a boarding pass at home instead of at the airport. As designers and problem solvers we need to look much further out. There are three angles to consider: 1. Extreme conve- nience; 2. Data as impor- tant information; and 3. Real-time track- ing of treatment plans. What could health care become when we understand technology options not as simply a different ave- nue for the same care but as a foun- dationally different delivery system for better care? It won’t take another pandemic to explore this question. The rest of world has become on demand and proactive rather than scheduled. Comedian Ronny Chieng jokes about Amazon Prime Now and Prime Yes- terday, but all good jokes have truth to them. I can now order bananas or eggs to be delivered to my front porch within 20 minutes – and I do.What if my care team intervened at criti- cal moments rather than idly waiting for me to seek intervention? What if when I truly needed my physician’s attention, I was not forced to wait behind other people enduring an inefficient process? Often during the design process, doctors have described a typical scene. Many patients wait until wrap- ping up an appointment before they ask about “just one more thing” – which is, as things unfold, the real reason behind the visit. Consider this: Most patients visit a physician just a few times a year, visits that often are defined by nervousness and discom- fort, which is never the ideal state for clear and honest communication. Beep. Beep. Consider this example: Trying to return to competition at the PGATour last June, a player tested positive for COVID-19 during the RBC Heritage. Of note, the player’s initial saliva test came back negative. He was only compelled to get tested again after his Whoop strap (a wearable health and fitness tracker) alerted him to breath- ing irregularities in his sleep. A sensor and an app detected his early signs of COVID-19, helped him get treated ear- lier and prevented further infection. Or, look at Talkspace. It’s a plat- form through which individuals with anxiety, depression or other mental health conditions can send therapists text, audio, video or picture messages in a private, text-based chat room. It doesn’t seek to replace in-person therapy, but it helps destigmatize the experience and make it available any- time, on demand. Talkspace already has more than 500,000 users. In another instance, a psychia- trist monitors a recently discharged patient as she navigates her daily activities in the world. Periodically the patient answers a quick text such as: “Are you hearing voices now?”These are computer generated, but when tracking data reveals a trend, the doc- tor is alerted so that she knows when to intervene. None of this is to highlight a specific tech health service. It’s about illus- trating that technology can do much more than just reduce patient volume and ensure people attend their regu- larly scheduled appointments. It can truly fuel healthier lives and make health care more accessible.We’re just scratching the surface. We should seize telehealth’s current momentum to move toward a future where it takes an active role in help- ing people be proactive about their health. Expanding health technology to its fullest potential Stacey Root Senior vice president, CannonDesign Please see Root, Page 17