Virtual Care Platforms Are Becoming Less Complex, But More Complete

Telecommunications companies that pivoted to telehealth during the pandemic are now integrating new services into the platform to support virtual care and remote patient monitoring.

The latest to do so is BlueJeans Telehealth, which was acquired by Verizon in 2020 and fine-tuned to support HIPAA-compliant virtual visits. The company announced an integration this week with the Apple Health platform, giving providers the opportunity to connect with a patient’s mHealth device and view such data as hart rate, ECG, sleep patterns and activity.

“By empowering patients to share this level of contextual information directly into the BlueJeans Telehealth visit, we are enabling patients and healthcare providers to have more meaningful conversations and successful virtual consultations that can lead to better patient outcomes,” the company said in a press release.

The announcement builds out a telehealth platform that has been popular during the pandemic, when providers sought to shift in-person visits to online platforms. Many telehealth companies touted the value of their platforms during the height of the public health emergency, while others like Verizon, Google, Microsoft and Zoom looked to bolster their platforms to support healthcare uses.

Zoom has also added to its platform. The company, which expanded its Zoom for Healthcare platform last year, has launched an iOS mobile browser to allow users to connect to a telehealth platform from their Apple device (the company plans to add the feature for other operating systems in the future). Other planned improvements will allow providers to send patients a link to a Zoom meeting by text or e-mail, as well as adding chat messaging and pre-recorded video functionality to the online waiting room.

“Telehealth has been an integral part of delivering care to patients during the pandemic, and will continue to play a key role in how patients seek care in the future,” Ron Emerson, the company’s Global Healthcare Lead, said in an Aug. 9 blog. “With the demand for telehealth showing no signs of slowing, we believe it’s crucial to provide a simple, frictionless, and secure experience for everyone involved — from provider to patient.”

While Zoom is looking to make the virtual visit easier for both patient and provider, BlueJeans aims to give both parties more to talk about. It also sets up the platform for other uses beyond one-off healthcare visits, such as remote patient monitoring.

The integration with Apple builds off the idea that care providers with access to biometric data can better map out care management plans, even adjusting them on the fly when that data shows a certain trend. Such a platform also gives providers a more complete picture of the patient’s daily activities.

“Health app users remain in control of which categories of Health app data they choose to share with their provider during each telehealth appointment, and shared data is encrypted in transit and at rest,” the BlueJeans press release points out.

“Using the BlueJeans iOS app, users will be able to select Apple Health app data from within the pre-visit patient landing experience or through the televisit tile during the visit. Once synced, the healthcare provider will be able to see and interact with the Apple Health app data. The healthcare provider can expand data to better observe trend lines as well as screen share the data for use during the televisit.”

The upshot is that care providers are seeing more opportunities to modify connected health platforms to fit their needs, whether it be direct-to-consumer telehealth or remote patient monitoring.