The Beat

Live at HLTH: The Evolution of Telehealth—featuring Roy Schoenberg of American Well

Episode Summary

On this episode of The Beat, recorded live at HLTH 2020, Roy joins Dr. Kuku to discuss how seeing a relative wait too long to seek care informs his work in telehealth. He shares his vision of the future of telemedicine, explaining how its applications will evolve from facilitating urgent care to enabling existing, trusted relationships between clinicians and patients. Listen in for Roy’s insight around the art of making good decisions in healthcare and learn how technology might reinvent the way we follow up with patients in need of ongoing care.

Episode Notes

For the last decade, telemedicine has been dominated by urgent care—and it’s delivered a great deal of value for patients in need of quick access to a doctor for something like the stomach flu. But for the technology to reach its full potential, the experience needs to expand beyond ‘blind date’ telehealth. What if we used telecare to enable established clinician-patient relationships? How might follow-up care improve if medical professionals could, for example, check in on cancer patients every day?

Roy Schoenberg is the President and CEO of American Well, the United States’ leading telehealth platform. Since its rollout in 2008, the American Well ecosystem has onboarded more than 200 of the nation’s largest payers, health systems, employers and retailers. Roy is a thought leader in the realm of healthcare technology and IT policy, and he was the 2014 recipient of the American Telemedicine Association Industry award for leadership in the field of telehealth.

On this episode of The Beat, Roy joins Dr. Kuku to discuss how seeing a relative wait too long to seek care informs his work in telehealth. He shares his vision of the future of telemedicine, explaining how its applications will evolve from facilitating urgent care to enabling existing, trusted relationships between clinicians and patients. Listen in for Roy’s insight around the art of making good decisions in healthcare and learn how technology might reinvent the way we follow up with patients in need of ongoing care.

Topics Covered

How seeing a relative wait too long to seek care informs Roy’s work
Why we delay or interact with the health system as little as we can
Roy’s insight on telehealth as the consumer revolution of healthcare
Roy’s vision of leveraging telehealth to enable existing relationships
Holding physicians accountable for the level of quality in telehealth
How tech is likely to reinvent the way we follow up with patients
Using tech to raise the level of quality for every person in the US
Making tech disappear so the healthcare experience is more human
The challenge of innovating in a skeptical industry that says NO first
Roy’s take around why making good decision in healthcare is an art

Connect with Roy Schoenberg

American Well

Roy on LinkedIn

Connect with HLTH & Dr. Kuku

Resources

FSMB Model Policy for the Appropriate Use of Telemedicine Technologies