Rethinking health care delivery through home-health technology advancements

To lessen the strain on our emergency medical systems, we need to amplify our focus on preventive medicine. Home-based health tools and applications, and screening solutions can help us do that. The post-Covid healthcare crisis is upon us, with gaps in preventive care in 2020 morphing into full-blown chronic diseases in 2022, putting the 60% of Americans who live with at least one chronic health condition at higher risk for adverse events. Meanwhile, physician shortages driven largely by clinical burnout have left community hospitals without the staff to attend to patients who need critical, often lifesaving, care. As a physician working in a small critical access hospital in North Dakota, I never imagined we’d be so understaffed to the point we’d need to fly our patients out of state to other facilities that can handle a higher level of acuity. Given these converging trends, we need to rethink healthcare in a big way.