Text-first virtual care: The key to virtual care sustainability

Virtual care is, and will continue to be, a ubiquitous front door to care as it evolves as a modality to better match the demands and lifestyles of consumers. As with any technology, success comes from learning, iterating, and evolving, and this is certainly true of virtual care as it comes of age. It’s been a complex journey as the modality gained acceptance, moving through the early adopter stage into its adolescent growth spurt propelled by COVID. Virtual care’s growth has been a mix of progress and pitfalls, manifested in policy changes, market shifts, sustainability issues, and the trials of big-name players. However, these challenges have also presented new opportunities for learning, partnering, and a runway for refined models to take hold. The legacy issues surrounding virtual care are now being resolved with the data-rich approach of on-demand, text-first virtual care. Fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) and poised to drive needed change, text-first virtual care is quality-oriented, data-based, and people-first, improving patient engagement and empowering clinicians. Helen Schnase, MD, MBA, shares her experience with on-demand, text-first virtual care and gives insight on how virtual care can continue to thrive and be the ubiquitous front door to care we all want it to be. She lays out why it must be an experience that people want to use and support the tenets of: high-quality comprehensive care delivery; improved access to care; increased engagement and affordability; as well as scalability and the ability to accommodate future innovation.