S6E07 - The Digital Health Policy Response: How To Protect The Progress Made So Far

Do you think that the ease of spread and the wide infection rate of COVID-19 is influenced by technology? Was the pandemic a wake-up call to the healthcare system?

These are some of the questions we will answer in today's session. Our special guest is Kevin Schulmer, one of the authors of the recently published article 'COVID-19 and Health Care's Digital Revolution' in The New England Journal of Medicine. He wrote that 'the spread of COVID-19 is a product of the digital and technological revolution that has transformed our world over the past century'. 

In this interview, he discusses the healthcare response in the time of Covid. He talks about the impact of analog medicine, using digital technologies for care, patient's perspective in the new kind of care, policies and regulations, the possibility of tailored recommendations, and more. 

You'll definitely want to tune in to this episode where Kevin helps us see a vision of the new horizon of orthopedic care and what we need to do to adjust. 

Today's Guest

Dr. Schulman is a Professor of Medicine, and a Director of Industry Partnerships and Education for the Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and, by courtesy, Professor of Economics at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in June, 2018. His interests include organizational innovation in health care, health care policy and health economics. 

Prior to coming to Stanford, Dr. Schulman served as a Professor of Medicine at Duke University, directed the Health Sector Management Program at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business for a dozen years, created and directed the Duke University Master’s of Management in Clinical Informatics Program, and served as a Visiting Professor and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School.

He is a co-founder of Bivarus (exit January, 2018), co-founder and Managing Member of Faculty Connection, LLC., and is a Board Member of Grid Therapeutics.

(Bio from https://profiles.stanford.edu/kevin-schulman)

Key Takeaways:

• Healthcare saw a fast transition from bricks and mortar to virtual visits. 
• There are many advantages to transitioning to digital telemedicine. 
• We're still at the verge of exploring the different digital technologies we can use to take care of patients. 
• If we have enough data on a patient, healthcare workers can offer more tailored recommendations to patients. 

Reference:

https://profiles.stanford.edu/kevin-schulman