Technology can assist in providing healthcare solutions, says concierge medicine CEO

The health care debate continues to make itself known in this country, and the CEO of a concierge medicine service sees some good news on the horizon.

“One of the things that’s most evident today, I think, is that more and more Americans need to be more empowered to make healthcare decisions for themselves and their families,” said Bret Jorgensen, Chairman and CEO of MDVIP. “I think that trend is a positive one.”

Health care resources are not evenly distributed across the country.

“There is a critical access issue in some areas that are more geographically isolated,” said Jorgensen. “In most parts of the country, there’s kind of the opposite problem, doctors with fairly overwhelmed patient panels, meaning their patient practice size is actually too large. Obviously, any solution has to deal with both of those kinds of issues.”

Technology can help with this problem.

“You could substantially increase the supply of doctors today by making one fairly impactful and simple change, which is giving people more and more access to virtual engagement tools with the consumer,” said Jorgensen. “That’s texting, emailing, participating in virtual telemedicine calls. Those are things that get people actively engaged in their health in a more convenient way for the consumer.”

It helps keep relatively well people out of the doctor’s office, but in order for such a system to work, doctors need to be able to get paid for such consultations. It would allow lower-level healthcare workers to do initial assessments even if the doctor themselves isn’t in the room.