Monica speaks with Caitlin Schumann, a Product Manager for Firefly Health, a virtual-first care model. In this episode, Caitlin shares her personal experience as a developer and telehealth patient, new telehealth innovations in development, and how telehealth can create a more tailored, personal experience.

“[With telemedicine] clinicians can continue to practice and be creative in how they solve problems for their patients and our patients don't feel restricted to what they can get access to.” – Caitlin Schumann 

Timestamps

• 02:04 How Firefly Health helps the disabled and chronic illness communities and Caitlin’s experience 
• 04:25 Chronic disease management using telehealth 
• 06:27 How telehealth provides more options for patients in rural areas 
• 07:51 Urgent care via telehealth 
• 08:57 Catching medical errors 
• 10:48 The benefits of wearables 
• 12:19 Benefits and challenges of medical devices patients can use at home 
• 15:42 Recent advancements at Firefly 
• 18:45 Cost savings with telehealth 
• 21:34 Setbacks to keeping telehealth post-COVID 
• 23:55 How to advocate for telehealth 
• 26:06 Problems with a lack of centralized, universal medical records 
• 29:23 Developing software in the healthcare field 
• 30:29 The ultimate digital product for Firefly 
• 31:39 Who has ownership over our medical records 
• 34:45 Negatives of a universal medical record system 
• 35:55 More choices in physicians with telehealth 
• 39:26 Tech that Caitlin is looking forward to 

Takeaway Learnings 

1) Telehealth has the capacity to aid your judgment in making big choices about whether you need to go to the emergency room or seek emergency treatment. In being able to speak with a physician remotely, they can provide their expertise on the best step forward. 

2) Telemedical intervention provides additional access to medical experts that might not be available within driving distance.   

3) Online medical care, such as telehealth, is progressing into more than just video calls. As Caitlin mentions, some platforms allow for you to take pictures of certain conditions for feedback, use wearables to track additional health data, and take risk assessments to ensure all preexisting conditions are being monitored.  

4) Some telehealth services are also focusing to aggregate data so that your medication and medical information is all in one place.   

Actionable Tips

1) If you are in the telemedicine development space - examine the opportunities for additional innovation by speaking with patients and doctors about what would be the most helpful for medical intervention.  

2) If you are a patient - think about where telehealth intervention may be of help in your life or the lives of the people that you take care of. Consider when receiving care remotely would be of the most value to you. 

3) If you are a legislator or a government official - determine how passing telehealth reimbursement programs could benefit people in your state. 

About Caitlin Schumann 

Cait has dedicated her career to enabling better access to healthcare through virtual care and innovative care models. She started her career at Boston Children’s Hospital on the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator. At Boston Children’s, Cait was responsible for many aspects of launching and growing the direct-to-patient Virtual Visits program, including the rapid acceleration of virtual care during 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Cait is a Product Manager at Firefly Health leading the development and improvement of member experience for primary care patients and health plan members. 

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