BS, Dietetics and Nutrition
Researchers from Flinders University say telehealth is the perfect example of what modern healthcare should deliver, especially for people who have no idea what virtual care is all about.
That sentiment is based on the foundation of a statement from a patient who said ‘care finally came to me’ after struggling to access basic medical services for years.
The research team are convinced that technology-enabled, human-focused care can move marginalised populations from the fringes to the heart of healthcare and community services.
According to the team, the model could even inform health reform around the world when it’s designed and delivered with the communities it aims to serve.
Policies That Reversed Lessons from the Pandemic
Telehealth was taken far more seriously in Australia and around the rest of the world when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak.
People who were bound by the laws of lockdown and social distancing were forced to turn to virtual consultations to reconnect with medical professionals.
Finding reliable services was tricky, with some of the services failing to deliver what they promised. Thankfully, Medicompare made it easy for people to compare telehealth services in Australia.
As evidenced by Medicompare’s impartial Medmate review, they are helping people finding the right options simpler by showing clear comparisons of different providers.
Medmate has helped Australian citizens overcome barriers to telehealth since it was launched. After the pandemic, the Medicare Benefits Schedule in Australia required most patients to have seen a general practitioner (GP) in person within the previous 12 months to qualify for many telehealth rebates.
Over half a million Australians who are homebound were threatened by that policy as it tears down the very service that could help to manage their medical conditions.
They failed to properly contextualise ‘homebound’, so policymakers have struggled to make exceptions properly, leaving many patients extremely vulnerable. Services such as Medmate offer an alternative route to reliable telehealth services.
The researchers claim that digital health literacy is the key to equitable telehealth delivery. That helps both sides make virtual care safe, effective and culturally relevant.
But there are also a few niggling challenges, such as the double gap in digital health literacy. Many patients struggle with issues ranging from remembering passwords to managing small screens and explaining complicated symptoms over video calls.
Some clinicians struggle to integrate virtual care into their daily schedule, ensure communications are private, or make their services available for environments that have low bandwidth.
That means a patient could have access to a digital device but have no clue how it works, while the clinician may also struggle to adjust their approach for virtual consultations.
Closing the Gap
Researchers from Flinders University believe telehealth is the real deal, so they recommended a few solutions that would help to close the gap.
They have urged providers to take up person-centred strategies such as co-design. That means bringing patients, caregivers, clinicians, policymakers and tech teams into the mix from the outset.
These experts highlighted two complementary frameworks to back up their approach – PROLIFERATE and PROLIFERATE_AI.
The former focuses on human-centred designs with continuous feedback loops that review the platform and tell them whether their services are acceptable, sustainable, and scalable.
PROLIFERATE_AI takes things up a notch. It adds an analytical tool that turns community and clinician feedback into real-time insights.
It uses surveys to assess understanding, emotional response, barriers, motivation and optimisation, allowing teams to predict where problems may arise and test solutions before rolling them out widely.
Technology has made things a lot easier, but there is only so much it can do to improve the quality of care.
The researchers used two theoretical frameworks to keep the human element front and centre. In practice, it means that telehealth services need to be flexible enough to adapt to certain situations.
Meanwhile, the researchers have made it clear that for telehealth to truly move from the margins to the mainstream, policymakers must treat it as a crucial part of healthcare rather than a stopgap.
That means tweaking the requirements for in-person visits if it doesn’t include homebound patients and taking digital health literacy seriously by making it accessible for both patients and providers.
Informing the Development of Telehealth Abroad
While Australia has been the testing ground for these findings, their impact could go far beyond the borders of the nation.
The United States was one of a few countries that brought telehealth into the mix early, but they have also faced similar issues in policy funding and flexibility.
Rural Americans, indigenous communities, older adults and people with disabilities encounter many of the same issues that have plagued Australia over the years.
However, Australia could offer US policymakers and healthcare systems a blueprint for sustaining equitable virtual care, especially through their PROLIFERATE and PROLIFERATE_AI frameworks.
If they take on continuous feedback, create services that cater to cultural contexts, and take digital health literacy seriously, then the telehealth program in the US could rub shoulders with some of the best in the world.
They would be able to reach and serve underserved communities better and adapt to their evolving needs. The emphasis on co-design ensures that solutions are not imposed from the top down but developed with those who will use them.
