As the industry is scrambling to fight the COVID-10 pandemic, care delivery is being transformed, with telehealth and other tools, in some ways that have the potential to reshape health care.
Amwell President & CEO Roy Schoenberg, MD, has a view into the pandemic response taking place among clients spanning health systems, payers, urgent-care facilities and clinicians in all 50 U.S. states.
Health Evolution Editor-in-Chief Tom Sullivan spoke with Schoenberg about the impact he is seeing thus far, what needs to change moving forward, and how sweeping policy changes made during the pandemic are likely to play out in the future.
Health Evolution: From your perspective, what are the important aspects of this pandemic that have not been widely recognized yet?
Schoenberg: We need to begin to look at telehealth as a federal infrastructure for load balancing, whether that’s managed by FEMA or another agency. Telehealth has become a necessary infrastructure. We need the ability to load balance clinical skills around the country in emergency situations.
