CareAsOne Aims to Create a Virtual Forum for Telehealth Collaboration

A new virtual community is advancing the idea that telehealth and mHealth can help the healthcare industry move toward more collaborative care.

CareAsOne, unveiled this month in San Francisco, aims to push the connected care concept out to the provider and payer communities by creating a forum for sharing ideas. Its organizers tout support from more than 5,000 executives.

"After years of struggling with fragmented data, the US healthcare system has realized just how critical information exchange is to improving healthcare,” David Nace, a member of the group’s Working Committee, said in a press release. “Providers, payers and employers are seeking a platform to unite, share information and explore collaborative initiatives that can drive patient-centered care and performance efficiency.”

“Through the CareAsOne community platform, healthcare participants can come together and identify the most pressing issues that need swift attention and formulate ways to improve overall healthcare operations," added the former Aetna, United Health Group and McKesson executive.

To better understand how this group fits into the shifting healthcare landscape, mHealthIntelligence sat down with Nace for a virtual discussion.

Q. How will CareAsOne fit into the current healthcare landscape? What goals will it target to improve care delivery?

A. “CareAsOne is the place where the interests of healthcare professionals are foremost. Right from credible analysis of clinical trends to the latest healthcare technology regulations, it is the one-stop platform for thousands of users across the US to discuss and keep themselves posted about the most relevant happenings from the healthcare world.

(It is) is a virtual community, providing a platform for like-minded people intending to bring healthcare transformation and patient-centered care. Anyone interested in the healthcare industry, willing to contribute their knowledge and expertise, can join this platform. Professionals looking to gain understanding, share thoughts, and stay informed about the healthcare world’s happenings can also be a part of the community.

At a broad level, CareAsOne is committed to:

• Providing new resources of information, solidarity, and support for patients, providers, and caregivers;
• Offering new insights to medical researchers; 
• Challenging traditional power dynamics between patients and clinicians; and
• Providing a more extensive space for communication.”

Q. Are telehealth and mHealth integral to the group’s message?

A. “As the flag-bearers of wellness and community health, healthcare professionals must stay updated with the latest research, best practices, and health-related news to comprehend and develop quality virtual care strategies. 

Since stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively restricted all in-person collaboration, an essential source of connection has disappeared for healthcare professionals seeking to make real change in healthcare. More so, in times like today, when newer care delivery models and virtual care platforms are emerging by the day to impart quality care, it gets eminent for one and all to share and decipher the latest healthcare happenings world effectively.”

Q. How will CareAsOne address these connected health technologies?

A. “The tectonic shift towards ‘value-based’ care was imminent, and everyone played their part with due diligence. Things started to change slowly. What made this process seamless was that everyone understood that healthcare is all about embracing the most relevant processes and moving forward.

However, fast forward to today, and we still have a long way to go. The next stop should be enabling a ‘connected care’ frame. To realize this goal, we need our healthcare professionals to collaborate beyond the four walls of their clinics and hospitals. Coupled with cutting-edge technologies and systems that talk to each other, we urgently need to set a new order for the future.

Our goal is to allow participants to explore novel care models, expert opinions, and innovative ideas for care delivery. The platform will enable users to share and access documents, blogs, tools, and other resources to ensure no one misses out on the latest trends, regulations, and innovations in our space. (It) will provide new examples of how some organizations are sharing data and achieving new models of collaboration to advance value-based care and better outcomes.”

Q. How can groups like CareAsOne affect telehealth and mHealth adoption?

A. “For people to adapt themselves to any new technology or methods, peer-reviews and publicly available resources are often the two most significant starting points. CareAsOne acts as a one-stop solution to initiate such discussions and take expert opinions on the go. Users can also engage in conversations with their counterparts to understand their perspective, access educational repositories, listen to free webinars and podcasts of their choice, scroll through live news and content feeds, and even directly reach out to renowned leaders in the space within seconds. We intend to provide valuable opinions and information that can be accessed free of cost to help people make informed decisions and move towards a better future and embrace newer care delivery models such as telehealth and mHealth.”

Q. Are there specific barriers to adoption that CareAsOne might address?

A. “Recent events have made virtual learning and peer engagement more important than ever before. If we are to unburden our healthcare system in the wake of these events, embracing telehealth models should be the number one priority of every healthcare stakeholder.

However, more often than not, healthcare providers and administrators are unable to maximize the utilization of their resources due to the very uncertainty about their very relevance. Many organizations take a substantial amount of time to identify their specific needs and identify factors that would take them closer to optimizing care and cost outcomes. Five primary reasons for this delay include:

• Lack of contextual insights into factors that impact the care quality;
• Limited information into the latest trends and technology advancements;
• Inability to trust a new piece of technology or try out innovations;
• Apprehensions around the difference in ‘outcomes promised vs. outcomes achieved’; and
• Limited visibility into relevant case studies and quality literature.

Q. How has COVID-19 affected the group’s message?

A. “With various online conferences and events being canceled for the indefinite future, COVID-19 has left an enormous impact on our day to day functioning. With CareAsOne, we wish to bring everything on to a virtual base and ensure the people are connected, despite being distant.

The primary challenge that the CareAsOne community aims to resolve is the lack of a unified platform to enable every stakeholder to work together. We wish to bring everyone under a single roof virtually, allowing them to work collaboratively even in these modern times.”

Q. What can CareAsOne do to stand out at a time when healthcare is undergoing an upheaval?

A. “Virtual care delivery models, such as mHealth and telehealth, are here to stay. In fact, things will only go north in this direction from here. The very objective behind the CareAsOne community is to create a networking and discussion forum that facilitates engagement, education, and alliance through the robust dissemination of healthcare information.

This is a totally non-profit initiative. We are wholly focused on bringing as many healthcare professionals as possible to realize our goal of enabling a connected care delivery model across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders.”

Q. How will this group evolve?

“In its nascent stage, we intend … to serve as a community platform for people to host discussions, share their opinions, seek expert advice, and organize various webinars and virtual events with top industry leaders.

We are in the process of getting registered as a 501(c)(3) organization. Since we will be a legal NPO in the coming days, more tie-ups and collaboration with healthcare organizations, universities, and other NPOs interested in our mission would follow suit.

Going forward, we also envision creating an academy, tying up with various institutes, launching online courses, maintaining an exhaustive library of online books, videos, and other materials- all catering to healthcare.”