In Part 1, we used a virtual health landscape framework to identify and discuss examples of demonstrated, emerging, and next-gen virtual health solutions. We explored the care model transformation impact of each and their contribution to a proposed vision of the future of self-service health care (Refer to Part 1: ‘Virtual Health as a Catalyst for Care Model Transformation – Part 1’).
Experience with COVID 19 “safer at home” and physical distancing has highlighted other advantages of virtual health adoption. Safety - and not just patient convenience - will likely be a future driver for the adoption of virtual health systems. Many health care providers have scrambled to implement virtual health solutions quickly over the past few weeks. Yet, to ensure sustainability, a number of enabling capabilities now need to be worked through methodically.
In Part 2, i.e. this article, we therefore examine enablers of each of these solutions and discuss how they are pre-requisites for care model transformation. We propose that enablers form somewhat of a pyramid, in which capabilities for next-gen virtual health solutions are additive to capabilities for demonstrated and emerging solutions (i.e. like a pyramid).