To American Well's Schoenberg, what was once 'crazy' is now expected

Roy Schoenberg

"Three years ago," Roy Schoenberg said, "we were the crazy ones."

Crazy, that is, for saying that technology could "redistribute healthcare" and bring patients closer to their doctors, wherever they may be, added the president and CEO of American Well Systems.

Three years later, Schoenberg said, some flavor of telehealth-related technology is at least in the request-for-proposal (RFP) stage at most major hospitals. And among the most promising aspects of telehealth is the technology's ability to improve the intimacy between a patient and one or more physicians.

"We are charged with pushing the intimacy envelope further on a monthly basis" as new technologies come into being, Schoenberg said during a Monday morning session at the NYeC Digital Health Conference 2012. And in a session titled 'A new frontier for telehealth: Pioneers of the online practice,' it's only fitting that he evoked Star Trek's famous "Beam me up, Scotty" line, explaining that the healthcare industry is "really getting to the point where this technology can re-distribute healthcare."

Indeed, part of that redistribution is the ability for patients to meet with doctors, or a team of doctors, in a video conference consultation akin to traveling through space, Star Trek-style.

What's more, doctors can more effectively coordinate care. Schoenberg pointed to an example that Doug Gentile, chief medical officer of Allscripts, provided earlier in the session where a patient essentially leaves the doctor's office only to stop at Dunkin' Donuts on the way home. To avoid that, a primary care physician could feasibly hand over the patient to a nutritionist.

The half-dozen top telehealth use cases Schoenberg pointed to all tie into the notion of increasing intimacy, including timeliness and immediate acquisition of care services, care where it's needed, embracing the doctor-patient relationship, extending care across physical boundaries and doing so in a more cost-effective manner.

Where healthcare will be three years into the future is a bit harder to say, though there is a broad sense  -  here during the panel and of course elsewhere in the industry  -  that telehealth will only gain momentum.

"Every day you wake up in the morning," Schoenberg said, "and by the time you go to bed there are more new applications for this."

Tom Sullivan

Editor of Government Health IT

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