A Scalable Framework for Telehealth: The Mayo Clinic Center for Connected Care Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Implementation of a multisite, interdisciplinary remote patient monitoring program for ambulatory management of patients with COVID-19

“…The Center for Connected Care was established in 2012 (now integrated within the Center for Digital Health) as a vital practice strategy to enable Mayo Clinic physicians and care teams to deliver health care virtually so that referring providers and patients have access to Mayo Clinic's expertise and knowledge through various technologies and integrated practice models at the right time and in the right place. Telehealth and virtual care services supported by Connected Care include the following four product lines: asynchronous (including patient online services, secure messaging, referring provider portals, and virtual consults), synchronous video telemedicine (including outpatient and inpatient video telemedicine, as well as advanced acute telemedicine services), RPM (including interactive care plans), and mobile platform 7 . RPM was established in 2015 to be an "Area of Excellence," ensuring standardized and scalable RPM services with centralized program management, clear governance and oversight, standardized clinical practice and reporting, and partner and vendor management.…”

“…Mayo Clinic leveraged and rapidly scaled mature telehealth and virtual care services in response to the pandemic in support of patients with serious and complex conditions 6,7 . Additionally, new services with existing products were developed to support the clinical management of patients with acute COVID-19 7 .…”

“…Mayo Clinic leveraged and rapidly scaled mature telehealth and virtual care services in response to the pandemic in support of patients with serious and complex conditions 6,7 . Additionally, new services with existing products were developed to support the clinical management of patients with acute COVID-19 7 . One such example was the utilization of the existing remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology with its operational infrastructure and clinical resources.…”

Avoiding the “Faux Equalizer”

“…In March 2020, we implemented an RPM program for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who were at risk for severe illness. 2 From the outset, the program was designed to be patient centered and widely accessible; specifically, exclusion criteria were removed from our previously established chronic condition RPM program, so patients with COVID-19 who were pregnant, non-English speaking, or recipients of a transplant or active cancer treatment could all benefit from the program. In anticipation of potential barriers in access to technology, cellular-enabled tablets and medical devices were provided to all patients upon enrollment.…”

Development of Digitalization Road Map for Healthcare Facility Management

“…The platform will react in real-time by letting the patients send files (e.g., images and text). The physician evaluates the patient transaction and triages patients based on necessity and urgency [25]. In comparison, Albahri et al (2021) used a different approach by proposing a framework called mHealth to offer healthcare services in a decentralized architecture for all emergence stages of patients with cardiovascular disease through blockchain technology for decision-making [31].…”