EP302: The Gigantic Problem I Have With Talk About Telehealth, With Blake McKinney, MD, From CirrusMD

In Episode 302, Stacey Richter talks with Blake McKinney, MD, ER physician and cofounder/CMO of CirrusMD, about what's really wrong with the way we argue about telehealth — and why the site of care matters far less than the agency behind it.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why telehealth "failures" are often really failures of the surrounding care ecosystem, not the modality itself

✅ Why familiarity is a more powerful force than convenience when it comes to patient behavior

✅ Why continuity-based telemedicine tends to outperform one-off virtual visits

✅ The four-step care delivery process — assessment, diagnosis, treatment plan, implementation — and the "pre-step" Dr. McKinney adds

✅ Why implementation is really about follow-up, and why doctors crave resources to support it

WHY THIS MATTERS

Dr. Blake McKinney argues that most complaints about telehealth actually point to flaws in the surrounding care ecosystem — missed follow-ups, no access to labs or imaging, lack of continuity — not flaws in virtual care itself. A single patient visit, virtual or in person, is a tactic, not a care pathway. What actually determines outcomes is whether the provider behind the camera has the agency, data, and infrastructure to guide a patient through a defined treatment journey, which is why continuity-based telemedicine can perform just as well as, or better than, in-person care.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

06:53 "Regardless of the availability of convenient options, there is one force more powerful than convenience, and that is familiarity."

09:01 "Telemedicine that is continuity based is going to be better medicine fundamentally."

13:21 "The fundamentals of medicine are the same, and the standard of care is the same, whether the care is in person or in clinic."

15:16 What's the underlying determinant of patient success?

16:08 "When it comes to the 'What's next,' doctors love resources."

16:52 How is telemedicine lacking in resources?

18:42 "Implementation to me is, first and foremost, about follow-up."

23:10 "There's a place for automations. My prime directive … is to build trust."

25:13 "The best adaptive interview that you can create is human to human."