Mary I. O'Connor, MD, is the first director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health and a professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine.
Her research interests include high-performance programs across the musculoskeletal service line and shared decision-making tools. She participated in a discussion at the Becker's Orthopedics + ASC Virtual Forum on Aug. 27 about the best technology-related investments for orthopedic practices in the current climate.
Click here to view the full interview on-demand and to access several other chats, panels and workshops from the event.
In this excerpt, Dr. O'Connor discusses how the rapid adoption of telemedicine has affected care delivery in orthopedics, and the importance of patient-centered care.
Editor's note: Responses have been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Question: What do you think are the best technology investments for orthopedic practices today, especially with the shift to telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and contactless payment systems?
Dr. Mary O'Connor: We have all seen this tremendous shift toward embracing telemedicine brought on by the needs of the pandemic, but that's not going to go away. Patients like the convenience of telemedicine, and while all of orthopedics cannot be delivered in a virtual mode, there's quite a bit of the work that we do that can be. And so, I believe that really the investment is in how can you take your work and create the proper blend of virtual versus face-to-face interaction that supports the best outcomes and drives the best value for patients.
Because one thing that is very clear to me is that the current system is not going to be what happens in the future. The costs are unsustainable. The employer-insured market is rebelling, and they're saying, 'we just can't take these increasing medical costs for our employees any longer.' And they're seeking alternative solutions and increasingly looking to innovative platforms, which are very digitally focused to drive value. When you look at the recent purchase of Livongo by Teladoc for an astonishing $18 billion. Right?
That's just amazing. And you say, 'well now that is an investment into this huge digital platform, and musculoskeletal care is going to evolve in those digital platforms as well.' So, I think that in terms of orthopedic practices, it's really looking at how can they provide telehealth services, which include visits with patients as well as telephysical therapy, to drive value and convenience for patients.
Q: What are some of the metrics orthopedic surgeons should be thinking about before they go ahead and make a big investment in new technology?
MC: Well, I'm a bit old-fashioned in this regard, because I still see a lot of opportunity to focus on the experience of the patient. Improve that experience as a way of driving your business model. So, if I was running an orthopedic practice, I would be looking at — what's the service we're providing? Are we really giving exemplary care so that the patients feel how much we care about them?
Patients know how we make them feel. They don't have really the knowledge or ability to look at an X-ray and say, oh, that implant's alignment is off by 2 or 3 degrees. Right? They don't have that ability like we do to analyze an outcome in that critical manner, but they know how they feel interacting with us. I'm not saying that practices shouldn't look at these technologies, I'm just saying that I think before you get to that point where you're going to invest a lot of capital in, for example, a robotics platform, that you would be looking to say 'let's really make sure we're optimizing our other aspects of patient care in interacting with patients.'