Meyer talks population health 2.0

BOSTON— Population health is in the midst of a makeover, said Gregg Meyer, MD, MsC, chief clinical officer at Partners HealthCare at the 2014 Connected Health Symposium.

To that end, he outlined steps to improve outcomes, experiences and care efficiency for patient populations, and shared related initiatives at Partners.

Focusing on the 5 percent high-cost, high-need patients is the first step toward moving to population health, he said. These “all of the above” patients—who often have a combination of multiple illnesses like cardiovascular disease, depression, arthritis and cancer—require care management over time. At Partners, customized care efforts for high-risk populations have cost $1 for every $2.50 saved while reducing mortality by 4 percent, he said.

The next opportunity is “convenience care” in the form of telehealth or virtual visits.

Whether synchronous or asynchronous, virtual visits are a way to connect patients in a more convenient way with physicians and ultimately avoid unneeded office visits, he said. Partners has seen a spike in its number of virtual visits, with 1,149 this year.

“It’s increasing at this quick rate because physicians like it and patient like it, Meyer said.

Digital curbside consults is another opportunity. Partners’ online specialty consultations allow patients to remotely access many specialists through the system and ask complex medical questions, express concerns or look for answers or treatment alternatives, he said.

Similarly, Partners began a 90-day pilot program in June with Minneapolis-based vidscrip.com, a company with a platform that enables Partners clinicians to create groups of short videos to educate their patients during clinical encounters. These videos are viewable anytime on any device, and can be shared with patients’ caregivers, he said.

Meyer also spoke about patient-reported outcome measures as integral to population health as a way to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of healthcare. 

Overall, population health needs to move away from healthcare delivery and shift its focus to what happens outside of a healthcare setting. As behaviors and socioeconomic status have a much larger impact on a person’s health than clinicians, “population health should be that bridge between medical care and community health systems,” Meyer said.“There is a huge opportunity where these systems come together.”