Devon Blog

Tag: specialists

  • Video Consults for Endocrinology

    Its clear to all that we’re living a national shortage of healthcare providers – some have gone on to call it an Public Health crisis.

    The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates (March 2023) that the United States will face a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. This shortage is expected to span both primary- and specialty-care fields. The shortage is projected to increase by 37,800 to 124,000 physicians within 12 years

    The shortage is driven by increasing demand for physician services, particularly population growth and aging. The workforce shortage has been increasing since before the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated at an even more alarming rate thereafter.

    California, Florida, and Texas are the three states expected to have the greatest estimated physician shortage by 2030.

    More than 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the U.S. population, live in rural areas

    Today, Rural areas make up nearly two-thirds of primary care health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) in the country. Rural residents are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke. About 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, but barely one-tenth of physicians practice there.

    We created Video Consults to help address this coverage gap by fusing together technology with medical experts spanning a wide geography. We’ve created an Ophthalmology practice and are now on our way to focus on Endocrinology needs of the nation.

    Why Endocrinology?

    The number of endocrinologists who treat adults is not growing nearly fast enough to keep up with the surging demand driven by a growing and aging population compounded by the continuing obesity epidemic. There has been a shortage of practitioners in the field of Endocrinology for many years. The continuing obesity pandemic, growth in diabetes and other endocrine disorders has only made the situation worse.

    “The wait time for a new patient to be seen is much greater than in almost any other specialty in medicine by a factor of two.
    You can get in to see a cardiologist in 15 days, but it’ll take you 37 days to get in to see an endocrinologist,”

    Robert A. Vigersky, MD (cited from Endocrine news, Dec 2014)

    How does Video Consults help?

    • Our platform enables healthcare institutions to improve access and reach to specialty services
    • Enables the provider to request a specialty service on-demand. Greater reach to specialists.
    • Practitioner (specialist) gets ubiquitous reach without the need to travel away from their medical practice. Better quality of life for the practitioner.
    • Access to expert consultation is received quicker, faster and more economically.
    • Patients receive a higher level of care.

    Our Endocrinology service line is yet another way in which Video Consults continues to deliver on HealthOcta’s mission of fusing expertise in technology and medicine to help healthcare providers deliver a higher level of care to their patients.

    Get in touch. Join us & learn more.

    We’re growing our Endocrinology practice are keen to engage with physicians across the country. Sign up to be part of our network of healthcare providers and we’ll get in touch to bring you on board. You may also request our team to get in touch

    References
  • Introducing VideoConsults

    Introducing VideoConsults

    Healthocta’s vision is to fuse together medicine & technology so healthcare providers can deliver better healthcare.

    The US Healthcare system is awesome. Yes, it is! There are few challenges. However, we’re definitely among the better places on earth where you’d want to be receiving healthcare services.

    Some challenges in the US Healthcare industry

    (This is a summary of what we found when we spoke to a bunch of people and made a few searches online…)

    • Access and affordability: Despite having one of the highest per capita healthcare spending, the US still faces high costs of healthcare which is not affordable for a large part of the population.
    • Fragmented delivery system: The US healthcare system is fragmented with a complex network of different insurance providers, leading to higher costs and lower quality of care.
    • Inadequate primary care: There is a shortage of primary care providers in many areas of the country, leading to a higher reliance on more expensive emergency and specialty care services.
    • High administrative costs: The US healthcare system has high administrative costs, resulting in a higher overall cost of healthcare compared to other countries.
    • Lack of transparency: There is a lack of transparency in the healthcare system, making it difficult for patients to make informed decisions about their care and for employers to effectively manage the cost of their employee’s health insurance.
    • Health disparities: There are significant health disparities among different racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups in the US, leading to unequal access to quality care and health outcomes.

    So what can be done about solving these challenges?

    If you boil it down, the primary theme of the issues is centered around high costs, lack of access to care in many areas of the country (think Rural) and lack of access to specialty care (in many places across the country)

    As a health technology company on a mission of TechMed fusion, we came up with a cool new innovative service. We call it VideoConsults by HealthOcta. With VideoConsults, we aim to help improve access to specialty services.

    What is VideoConsults by HealthOcta?

    VideoConsults is a technology enabled service by HealthOcta. This service is used by healthcare institutions such as Hospitals, Emergency Departments, Doctors offices, Freestanding ERs, Nursing facilities and other institutions to get access to and consult healthcare specialists without having to wait hours or days.

    We have created an innovative system that brings together the expertise of medical practitioners in a variety of specialty fields, sophisticated devices for diagnostic and imaging (that can be used by a medical assistant without having to undergo advanced training) and the ubiquitous reach of telemedicine technology to help solve the access and practitioner coverage issues omnipresent in the healthcare industry. What’s better than seeing a demo right here!

    The HealthOcta team is currently focusing on enabling better access in Ophthalmology. The Video Consults platform will soon be expanded to support a variety of specialty services. We’re keen to connect with healthcare providers & practitioners so we can learn from you and add capabilities more speciality service lines.

    Our teams are now actively bringing together specialists to offer their expertise on this platform. Please contact us to learn more.