Spectrum Takes on the Future of Healthcare with MedNow

Joseph M. Brennan

Joseph M. Brennan, Sr. Director, MedNow, Spectrum Health. With 60,000+ virtual encounters over a four-year period, Spectrum Health has learned that telehealth innovation in healthcare is much less about technology and much more about the willingness to evolve an industry to focus on consumers about their health care needs – engaging with them at the right place and right time. MedNow started small with the decision to build a telehealth platform rather than buy it. Choosing to build allowed Spectrum to create a new, patient-centered experience with their providers, which also produced valuable data to support the hypothesis that not only is virtual care necessary today, but it will be an absolute requirement in a value-based healthcare eco-system. Anything that does not require a physical exam or procedure will be done when and where it is most convenient for the patient, hinting that the future of healthcare will place face-to-face encounters as an “Option B.”