New report investigates how telehealth can reduce healthcare
disparities in the treatment of Black Americans
LONDON, Dec. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate
Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted
information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation,
today announced the release of a new report, entitled Realizing
telehealth's potential to reduce healthcare disparities: How
healthcare stakeholders can utilize technology to remedy inequities
in the treatment of Black Americans. The new report centers on
telehealth's role in addressing healthcare inequities in
the United States and the most
difficult challenges and potential solutions, examining how
policymakers, providers and advocates are addressing these
challenges to increase access to healthcare, specifically among
Black Americans. The report finds while telehealth could
close gaps in care and ease disparities, providers face challenges
in using telehealth to address inequities, from locking in the
necessary reimbursement structures to ensuring they can bridge gaps
and reach patients.
As a member of the CEO Action for Racial Equality coalition,
Clarivate has released this year's report as part of its commitment
to provide researchers, policy makers and healthcare providers with
critical data and insights to inform the creation of scalable and
sustainable policy solutions and catalyze corporate engagement in
the areas of education, healthcare, economic empowerment and public
safety. The report features unique data and insights gleaned from
Clarivate research products including: Taking The
PulseTM and Cybercitizen HealthTM, Web
of ScienceTM, Healthcare
Business InsightsTM, and Market Access
intelligence. The in-depth analysis on the potential of telehealth
in reducing health disparities in the United States.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, telehealth can provide
access to critical healthcare services while keeping vulnerable
patients out of clinics and hospitals. While the pandemic
accelerated the digital transformation of healthcare, steps must be
taken to ensure equitable access for Black Americans. Black
communities have disproportionately faced barriers to address
healthcare. There is an opportunity to build equity into the
federal telehealth expansion policies established during COVID,
improving Black communities' access to healthcare and combat
existing disparities.
Telehealth's role in addressing healthcare
inequities in the United
States
Longstanding inequities in access to
healthcare amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated poor
outcomes...and depression. These populations often face an
array of barriers to positive health. In addition, access to
broadband technology and telehealth-enabling devices in the black
community can be an issue for older patients who may not own
telehealth-enabling devices or potentially require assistance
using them to connect with healthcare providers.1
Possible solutions
Even with continued support from policymakers, steps can be
taken to ensure access to patients for whom sociodemographic
factors, living arrangements or internet skills and experience
impede use. To support better health outcomes,
policymakers and regulators can extend or make permanent policies
allowing for uniformity in reimbursement of telehealth services
with in-person services, including audio-only visits and
consultations with out-of-state providers. Regulators can
examine liberalizing or vacating requirements that patients
meet with a healthcare professional in-person before qualifying
for teleconsults.2 Also, additional investment
in expanding broadband infrastructure to
underserved communities and the exploration of ways to get
A/V-capable devices such as smartphones and tablets to patients who
lack them could affect positive change.
The use of telehealth has soared since the advent of COVID-19.
At the pandemic's outset, in the spring of 2020, 21% of U.S.
physicians reported having used virtual consults to treat patients
in the previous three months – up from single digits in 2019. By
summer 2020, after the initial wave of infections, that figure had
climbed to 80%, softening only slightly to 65% by spring
2021.3 U.S. patients anticipate more in-person visits
and fewer virtual consults once pandemic mitigation measures are
rendered unnecessary, but telehealth is expected to remain a part
of routine care, particularly for checkups, prescription renewals
and side effect management. Forty percent of all Americans agree
that they will continue to use virtual consults for most follow ups
– as do 44% of Black Americans.4
Providers can invest in building out their telehealth
capabilities through partnerships with third-party platforms or
internal development of their own systems. Comprehensive
training can be offered to staff in conducting consultations
via telehealth and helping their patients navigate telehealth
platforms, along with cultural competency training to improve trust
and communication with patients from underserved communities.
In a recent survey, healthcare leaders were asked to identify the
areas most in need of improvement within telehealth provision.
Virtual care delivery best practices was the most-cited, followed
by patient experience and satisfaction and patient-provider
communication.5 Providers can also partner with local
and national community groups, patient advocacy
organizations and other healthcare industry
stakeholders to establish trust and credibility within
minority communities, including Black communities among other
actions.
Life science companies can raise awareness of these digital
resources among clinicians through rep details, digital assets
(i.e., websites and apps), and promotional content. In addition,
investing further analysis of the social determinants of health
impacting Black and other minority patients using their products
and incorporating guidance and solutions into patient support
resources and consumer-facing digital assets could help to
alleviate some of the barriers faced by these communities.
Mike Ward, Global Head of Life
Sciences and Healthcare Thought Leadership, Clarivate: "While
the relaxation of state and federal restrictions on telehealth
reimbursement have fueled telehealth adoption, it remains to be
seen whether these measures will last beyond the Public Health
Emergency. Telehealth offers a means of extending
access to care to individuals who may face multiple barriers. Life
science companies have an opportunity to explore packaging digital
information and resources for patients in ways that make them easy
for healthcare professionals to share with their patients and
ultimately enable better and more impactful care."
Gbenga Ogedegbe, M.D.,
professor of medicine and population health at NYU Grossman School
of Medicine and director of the Institute for Excellence in Health
Equity at NYU Langone: "The silver lining is that the pandemic
allowed us to reimagine healthcare in those four-to-six months of
the pandemic, and there was evidence that technology actually can
allow us to bridge the gap in care when there is access."
Denise White Perkins, M.D.,
Ph.D., Director of Healthcare Equality Initiatives and Vice Chair
of Academic Affairs for the Department of Family Medicine, Henry
Ford Health System: "The pandemic really highlighted the
inequities that we have, both in the broader society and in
healthcare delivery. When we converted the majority of our visits
to virtual care at the start of the pandemic, it became immediately
obvious that there were certain segments of the population we were
serving that did not have equal access, whether that was knowing
how to use the technology or the more upstream issues of having
broadband access in their neighborhoods."
The report offers in-depth analysis of telehealth's potential as
a partial solution to longstanding racial inequities in healthcare
provision, and how stakeholders throughout the healthcare
ecosystem, from providers, insurers, drug and device makers to
regulators and policymakers, can encourage its adoption.
To learn more about the special report, Realizing
telehealth's potential to reduce healthcare disparities: How
healthcare stakeholders can utilize technology to remedy inequities
in the treatment of Black Americans, visit here.
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a global leader in providing solutions to accelerate
the lifecycle of innovation. Our bold mission is to help customers
solve some of the world's most complex problems by providing
actionable information and insights that reduce the time from new
ideas to life-changing inventions in the areas of science and
intellectual property. We help customers discover, protect and
commercialize their inventions using our trusted subscription and
technology-based solutions coupled with deep domain expertise. For
more information, please visit clarivate.com.
Media Contact:
Catherine Daniel
Director, External Communications, Life Sciences &
Healthcare
media.enquiries@clarivate.com
1 Source: Healthcare Business Insights, 2021. 2021
Trends Analysis: HBI State of the Industry, Milwaukee: Clarivate.
2 Source: Market Access Intelligence. Clarivate.
2021
3 Source: Taking the Pulse U.S. 2021. Clarivate.
June 2021
4 Source: Cybercitizen Health U.S. 2021. Clarivate.
July 2021
5 Source: Healthcare Business Insights, 2021. 2021
Trends Analysis: HBI State of the Industry, Milwaukee: Clarivate.
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SOURCE Clarivate Plc