Meet the Team Solving America’s Complex Healthcare Problems

DispatchHealth is a healthtech unicorn solving unique challenges to bring healthcare home.
Written by Eva Roethler
September 1, 2021Updated: September 1, 2021

The current healthcare system in the U.S. presents quite a paradox.

“We spend 17 percent of GDP on healthcare, but we get worse outcomes than most other industrialized countries. That represents a lot of opportunity,” said Dan Edstrom, vice president of data engineering and data science of DispatchHealth. 

Behind the scenes, Edstrom and the technology and product teams at DispatchHealth are solving complex problems incorporating logistics, patient prioritization and privacy-protected data into a revitalized healthcare-at-home delivery model. Users with urgent but non-life-threatening medical conditions request a visit, and local care teams including a DispatchHealth med tech and nurse practitioner or physician’s associate, are dispatched to visit the patient at home, with an on-call physician available when necessary. 

 

DispatchHealth team.
Dispatchhealth

 

Currently, the company serves more than 30 markets and estimates that it will have saved patients more than $2 billion in medical costs by 2023. These impressive stats — alongside circumstantial shifts in the overall industry due to the COVID-19 crisis — have turned heads and contributed to the company achieving unicorn status in 2021.

 

Solving Problems

Presently, there is a huge amount of semi-structured and unstructured data in healthcare, and higher volumes of health data are coming in as more IoT and remote health monitoring devices become available. 

“We are moving toward patient-centric, personalized care using data. That’s historically been hard to do at scale while also delivering better outcomes,” said Head of Program Management Kristen Frino. 

Brian Baker, who is on the product leadership team, uses the “rightsizing of care” to illustrate the importance of data. In order to understand whether a patient needs an in-person physician for a particular issue, the company can examine healthcare history to determine if there are potential comorbidities that would necessitate an in-person exam beyond the scope of what the on-site medtech or nurse practitioner can provide. “The power of that nuance in our decision-making can be really powerful, save costs and drive efficiency without ever sacrificing the quality of care,” he said.

Using this information has the potential to improve outcomes across a patient’s lifetime. “The starting point is putting together data infrastructure to get the right data in front of the right people at the right time to inform decision-making,” said Edstrom. 

The company is using data to improve outcomes and shift healthcare from a reactive stance to proactive one. “Value-based care is going to take off when there are more efficient alternatives to traditional healthcare delivery. That’s where our heads are at. First, how can we bring healthcare delivery into the home? Second, how do we build the technology that makes that possible? That’s where our work comes in; we are channeling those conversations into action,” said Baker.

“I've seen the movement toward telehealth for years, but the pandemic supercharged that and exposed underlying issues with access to care and delivery of care,” said Frino. “What we’re doing is delivering care in the home, powered by tech and data, to break free of traditional brick-and-mortar facilities to meet patients and providers where they are at.”

 

Patient using the DispatchHealth app.
Dispatchhealth

 

Uber is a common reference point to understand the new models that are being used to solve old logistics problems. The team at DispatchHealth is determined to resolve analogous logistical problems within tighter constraints — and with a humanitarian mission — to get medical teams into patients’ homes. 

“At Dispatch, we don’t have the same levers as Uber; we can’t incentivize healthcare providers to increase capacity. There are time-sensitive patient health issues that need to be prioritized. There are a lot of interesting components to this logistics problem,” said Edstrom.

There are also health information privacy laws. So, for example, while someone using Uber is able to watch their driver on a map for an estimation of when they’ll arrive, DispatchHealth isn’t able to do that with its mobile provider teams. “We can’t show the location, because they might be seeing another patient, and that would be providing too much detail. So how do you give insight into when the team will arrive in a meaningful way, but keep privacy top of mind?” said Edstrom.

The team is invigorated by these types of challenges, and the possibilities are endless. “We’re using our technology to break down the four walls of the traditional healthcare facility and expand the scope of healthcare in an endless way,” said Baker. 

Value-based care is going to take off when there are more efficient alternatives to traditional healthcare delivery. First, how can we bring healthcare delivery into the home? Second, how do we build the technology that makes that possible?”

 

Staying Grounded

These challenging problems aren’t the only factor keeping workers engaged at DispatchHealth. New tech team employees are initiated through ride-alongs with care teams to keep them grounded in the work they do every day. According to Baker, this creates a team bound together by empathy and in touch with the patients they serve. 

“It’s a vulnerable moment when a patient asks for help,” said Frino. “It requires a lot of empathy. It’s refreshing to be taking that vulnerable moment out of sterile facilities and creating better outcomes at home.” 

Edstrom clearly recalls the moment when he realized that small comforts made a huge difference, visiting one of the company’s first hospital-at-home patients. The patient was relieved to stay home with their cat, who offered solace. “I think there was a better outcome by virtue of being treated in-home," said Edstrom.

In some ways, the house call is a nostalgic idea. A century ago doctors would often visit patients at home instead of in clinical settings. Baker sees this model as a return to where healthcare was meant to happen. “Now we’re getting to a place where we can offer that service again, but more effectively and with a more advanced level of care, and circle back around. This is a tried-and-true method, and it’s encouraging from that perspective,” he said.

Currently, the company serves more than 30 markets and estimates that it will have saved patients more than $2 billion in medical costs by 2023.”  

 

Big-Picture Goals

Empathy keeps the team grounded, but the vision keeps them anchored in a sea of industry change. 

For Edstrom, the vision is personal. “My mother has dementia and lives in an assisted living facility. It is confusing for her to be transported for treatment, and can take several days for her to get back to baseline. If someone can come treat her where she is, it is a great improvement for her,” said Edstrom. 

There is data to support the idea that home healthcare is more effective. Among other benefits, providers are able to assess relevant environmental factors that they might have missed in a clinical setting, and patients save time they would have spent traveling to clinics. Medicine has come a long way in the past half-century, but the tools were often anchored in labs and hospitals. Now services such as mobile imaging can be done anywhere, and DispatchHealth is quickly expanding in-home services in pace.

“Our vision is to build the largest in-home care system. That requires innovation. The permutations are endless. It takes many perspectives from all kinds of industries and geographies to achieve this ambitious vision,” said Frino. 

Culture plays a role, too. Though the tech team is distributed, employees are united by values such as courage, innovation, integrity and compassion. The team also taps into a diversity of perspectives to help bring fresh ideas to deeply entrenched industry problems. 

In fact, when Edstrom was interviewing for his current position in 2018, he was concerned his lack of healthcare experience would be prohibitive. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Mark Prather saw it as an advantage. “He told me, ‘If I were building a hospital, yes, I would have concerns. But I’m not building a hospital.’ Our team wants a variety of expertise and backgrounds to help solve all of the problems that need to be solved,” said Edstrom.

The team agrees that DispatchHealth is anything but a top-down organization. Great ideas can come from anywhere within the company, and everyone has the opportunity to leave their mark on a rapidly changing industry.

“It’s rare, even in technology, to be able to work on something truly revolutionary like creating computers, the internet or smartphones,” Baker summarized. “To me, transforming healthcare is in that same pantheon. DispatchHealth is one of those once-in-a-generation opportunities that will impact hundreds of millions of lives. 

 

 

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