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There has been a rise in pharmaceutical, medical device and digital therapeutics companies investing in telehealth. UpScriptHealth is one telemedicine technology and services organization that caters to these companies.
UpScriptHealth has more than 100 of these deals in its pipeline, reported Peter Ax, founder and CEO of the virtual care company, with many already live including Pfizer, Dexcom, Axena Health, Spark Biomedical and Lucid Diagnostics. It works with these pharmaceutical, medical device and digital therapeutics companies to help people access treatment through telemedicine.
We spoke with Ax to discuss the factors driving more pharma and medical device companies to invest in telehealth, how telehealth is helping pharma improve access to rare and complex disease care, what the future looks like for compounding pharmacies being aided by telehealth, and how artificial intelligence is boosting telehealth when it comes to personalizing treatment plans, monitoring patient progress and identifying potential medical issues.
Q. What are the factors driving more pharma and medical device companies to invest in telehealth?
A. The surge we’re seeing in telehealth investment is primarily driven by the need to address fundamental access barriers in our healthcare system. Patients often face weeks-long wait times and limited availability of providers, particularly in pharmacy deserts.
Critical administrative challenges, such as prior authorization processes, also frequently create coverage issues in traditional healthcare settings that telehealth platforms can effectively streamline. Telehealth systems also make follow-up care more readily available, as it is often difficult to manage in brick-and-mortar practices due to time constraints.
We’ve seen how telehealth comprehensively addresses these challenges by making healthcare more accessible while removing traditional pain points in the healthcare system.
Q. How is telehealth helping pharma improve access to rare and complex disease care?
A. We’ve seen telehealth capabilities evolve dramatically from prescribing relatively simple medications to now supporting treatments for complex and rare diseases. Our recent partnership with EsoGuard to offer esophageal cancer screening demonstrates this evolution by enabling clinicians to remotely assess risk factors, prescribe testing and deliver results through our digital platform.
Additionally, our collaboration with Vive Health showcases how telehealth can revolutionize treatment delivery, allowing patients to receive blood tests with immediate results and arrange for injections at alternative care sites. These innovations represent just the beginning of telehealth’s extraordinary potential in direct-to-patient care for rare and complex diseases.
Q. What does the future look like for compounding pharmacies being aided by telehealth?
A. The future of compounding pharmacies aided by telehealth holds significant promise. Telehealth can expand access to compounded medications, particularly for patients in remote areas. It also can facilitate more frequent and personalized patient-physician interactions, leading to improved medication management and adherence.
However, this integration requires careful consideration. Prioritizing patient safety is paramount, necessitating robust quality control measures within compounding pharmacies and ensuring telehealth platforms facilitate comprehensive patient assessments and ongoing communication.
Q. How is artificial intelligence boosting telehealth when it comes to personalizing treatment plans, monitoring patient progress and identifying potential medical issues?
A. We’re strategically implementing AI to enhance our telehealth services across multiple touchpoints of the patient journey. Currently, we’re using AI in the background to optimize questionnaires provided to patients when they enter the platform.
These are traditionally prepared solely by clinicians, but we now leverage AI to draft more user-friendly questions that then are reviewed by our medical professionals, ensuring both accessibility and clinical accuracy. We also use AI in our platform’s chatbots and digital interfaces, making patient interactions more intuitive and responsive while also streamlining our platform development processes.
Looking ahead, we envision expanding AI applications to analyze population health data and demographic patterns, enabling us to predict individual patient needs over extended timeframes.
This predictive capability could help us anticipate and prepare for a patient’s healthcare requirements over the next decade of their life, ultimately delivering more personalized and proactive care through our telehealth platform.
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Erasmo Damron