Using Telehealth as a Platform to Tackle Social Barriers to Progress

While the pandemic prompted an unprecedented surge in telehealth to address healthcare needs, it also highlighted the gap between those who can access care and those who can’t.

Now health systems, community health organizations, non-profits and philanthropic groups are moving to address those gaps with programs that use telehealth to extend care to those who can’t access or afford it. They’re fueling a surge in connected health charities and projects targeting the social determinants of health.

Among those groups is Beam Up, an organization launched by telehealth company Beam Healthcare to address gaps in access to health food, quality education and healthcare services. Executives see a need for these services not only in other countries – a partnership with Tyto Care is equipping a handful of orphanages in Mexico with telemedicine technology – but in cities and rural regions across the United States.

“We know, coming from the healthcare market, that healthcare itself isn’t the answer,” says Sarjoo Patel, MD, the founder and CEO of Wisconsin-based Beam Healthcare who also launched Beam Up. “COVID-19 has opened a lot of eyes as to what we can do.”

When the pandemic took hold of the nation, healthcare providers pushed as much as they could onto virtual platforms to reduce in-person care. In time, as providers became accustomed to using the tools and platforms, they saw the potential to add other services. They realized that the "connected" in connected health means a bit more than just connecting doctors and nurses to patients.

For example, a platform that connects patients to their primary care providers could also be used to connect those patients to resources for social services (such as housing assistance, food banks and welfare), educational services, transportation, child care, even legal services.

For Patel, the initial goal for Beam Up was to partner with other organizations in cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee, reaching out to children and adults surrounded by poverty and violence. Using a telehealth platform, they would create a network of resources and opportunities aimed at breaking that cycle and giving residents a better chance at success.

“Our goal is to empower local care providers to use these tools,” he says. “Local empowerment is the key to success.”

While the pandemic may have trained the spotlight on the need for telehealth programs that address social determinants of health, it has also delayed a lot of them. Patel says he’s working on the various partnerships needed to make sure the programs are scalable and sustainable, and he expects to launch the first programs later this year.

The program in Mexico, he says, “was just a really good match.” Beam Up learned of the opportunity through Tyto Care to supply telemedicine equipment and telehealth services to several orphanages in Tijuana. The program, as planned, will empower local care providers to provide much-needed primary care services for a population that lacks both access to care and the insurance to pay for it.

Beyond that program, Patel says Beam Up will focus its early efforts on communication. Many projects fail because providers don’t understand what they can do with telehealth.

“Technology is the easiest piece in this,” he says.

The harder tasks involve creating workflows that integrate telehealth and follow-up care, and ensuring accountability – tasks made easier through collaboration and continued use. Success will be measured in increments, perhaps not seen at all for a while as everyone gets used to the process.

The key, says Patel, is in looking at these programs beyond healthcare. Healthcare is one piece of the puzzle, and telehealth is the platform on which that puzzle is put together.

“They’re all connected,” he says. They just have to be put together.