In collaboration with Parkland Health & Hospital System, Current Health has set its sights on tackling hypertension through home-based care. The partnership is indicative of how telehealth and remote care management companies have capitalized on the larger shift of care to the home during COVID-19.
The goal of Current Health and Parkland’s hypertension monitoring program is to lower patient risk through regular engagement.
“Parkland correctly identified high blood pressure as an underlying cause of lots of illnesses in their underserved population,” Adam Wolfberg, chief medical officer of Current Health, told Home Health Care News. “High blood pressure is related to worsening heart disease, to increased risk of stroke, to a shortened lifespan and increased risk of death. Those risks can all be significantly reduced if patients are able to successfully control their high blood pressure.”
Based in Boston, Current Health offers a platform equipped with remote care management, telehealth and patient engagement tools to help health care providers conduct home-based care. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced that it was acquiring Current Health last October.
Meanwhile, Dallas-based Parkland is an integrated health system.
As part of the program, Parkland will utilize Current Health to monitor patients’ blood pressure and other symptoms.
“[Patients] are sent home with the Current Health vital sign monitoring technology and a telehealth tool that allows them to interact with their health care providers,” Wolfberg said. “That access enables them to interact with their health care providers in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”
Prior to the partnership, Parkland was working with blood pressure cuffs and paper diaries, which meant that feedback from the patients’ health care provider wouldn’t occur until their next appointment, according to Wolfberg.
“This way the data can move electronically to their health care provider who then can review it, interact with the [patient] by phone or by telehealth, change medication, provide support and recommendations on a nearly real-time basis,” he said.
Additionally, education is a focal point of the program.
“[Patients] receive education and support about their diagnosis,” Wolfberg said. “The education includes information about the importance of their medication and measuring their blood pressure. The education also talks about their diet and encourages activity.”
In general, the partnership between Current Health and Parkland should come as no surprise to those who have been following the home-based care space closely.
In fact, up to $265 billion worth of care services for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could shift to the home by 2025, according to a Mckinsey report.
One of the driving forces behind this larger shift to the home is the growth in virtual care. In February 2021, the use of telehealth was 38 times higher than it was before the public health emergency.
More than one in five health care leaders said that their practice offers remote patient monitoring.
Aside from Current Health’s partnership with Parkland, the company recently announced that it was teaming up with Zoom (Nasdaq: ZM). The company’s integration with Zoom will enable health systems and their patients to launch the video conferencing service from its care-at-home platform.
“Our mission is to deliver quality care for all people in the most seamless ways possible,” Chris McCann, CEO and founder of Current Health, said in a statement. “We know that home-based care reduces complications for at-risk populations and cuts costs by 30% for health systems. With this Zoom integration, we aim to build upon these benefits by empowering health care providers to replicate the in-person experience in the home to deliver best of breed diagnosis and care at scale.”
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