lation health by 2023 . The thinking is that the field will become less siloed under value-based care .
After the disruption of 2020 , the push for more collaborative affiliations has become even more urgent , especially as society has shifted from hospitals to the home as the “ center of gravity ” for outpatient services , according to Yellowlees .
At the core of this evolving model is technology . The pandemic accelerated the expansion of telehealth services . Telemedicine spiked as patients contacted physicians virtually . A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from February 2021 highlights the benefits of telehealth : fewer in-person patients creates more access to care with less burden on facilities and medical supplies , and it reduces disease transmission . Even as COVID-19 rates come down , telehealth trends appear to be staying long term .
“ We are going to be providing more tech-enabled health care and services across the mobile health spectrum ,” Yellowlees says . “ That ’ s a real silver lining to do with COVID .”
Failure to communicate
In the medical field , technology isn ’ t just plug and play . The main obstacle to uniting fragmented health systems is the siloed software many systems still use : They speak different languages with no means to integrate various voices or assessments , says Ryann Vernetson , chief of clinical innovation and technology at the national nonprofit Specialized Alternatives for Families & Youth and an Opeeka Advisory Committee member . The organization , which serves about 5,000 families annually , is currently in a small pilot with Opeeka . The goal is to collect assessments on the platform from parents , caregivers , teachers , therapists and other important voices in the children ’ s lives to highlight positive trends and areas that need attention . By putting the most important information front and center in a simple summary , these assessments help providers construct plans of care . This data can be used not only for children and adults , but also to assess a given workforce , so employees feel healthy , listened to , and not overwhelmed or overburdened .
“ What is attractive to us is that ( Opeeka is ) system agnostic ,” Vernetson says . “ Their solution works with our current electronic health records . … My priority is to identify clinical tools without placing an unnecessary burden on care managers .”
After doing consulting in the mental health field throughout California
and many states , Cordell saw the need to focus on whole-person care — and technology as a pivotal driver . Cordell began building the unique software system in May 2020 . With information from a variety of health care professionals , the software assembles a person ’ s data ( needs , symptoms , diagnoses , traumas , safety , income , etc .) into a “ story ” that can be observed by providers and tracked .
Opeeka has a team of about 30 offshore developers and about eight in-house . In June , the startup closed a seed round , raising $ 2 million from 31 local investors , which will go toward improving the product and expanding into other states . As of July , Opeeka has 10 customers , namely community organizations focused on a variety of mental health issues , including foster youth , adults dealing with substance use and families in domestic abuse shelters , to name a few .
The human element
What Opeeka aims to do is aggregate information that supports teams ’ ability to heal — in partnership with patients and clients — and empower the patient in an authentic way , says Richard Knecht ( no relation to Ken Knecht ), managing partner at Integrated Human Services Group . He met Cordell about six years ago and came aboard as an adviser and is now an investor . He has seen the health care industry ’ s struggle to make this patient-level information available to the patient for a long time .
“ We understood that empowerment ,” he says , “ but have fallen short of giving them information that tells them in plain English what it means and how they can inform their own healing .”
For decades , he says , health rules designed to protect privacy and identity got in the way of health information being exchanged . Providers didn ’ t want to risk invading a patient ’ s privacy and patients had fears of being exposed , he says . But the past year saw vulnerable and underserved communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic . This devastating reality revealed that medical care isn ’ t the only factor for health and wellness . Housing , pollution , transportation , access to healthy food and other social conditions play a vital role .
Richard Knecht predicts another 12-24 months before data begins to reveal the long-term effects of the pandemic , but it did worsen operational flaws in health systems that need to be addressed , such as the importance of data sharing . Aligning for Health , a health care membership association , and many other social-services organizations advocated for Social Determinants Accelerator Act of 2021 , which , among other things , encourages greater coordination and accountability through cross-sector information
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