The Impact of Telepsychiatry on Creating the Perfect Provider–Patient Match

As access to telepsychiatry and telehealth evolves, patients will have an increased opportunity to find the perfect match in a provider, said Psych Congress Steering Committee member and CEO of Oribit Health, Edward Kaftarian, MD, in a session at this weekend’s Psych Congress Elevate virtual meeting.

“Part of the ideal future of telepsychiatry is a perfect match between the patient and the provider,” Dr. Kaftarian told virtual attendees. “We are going to have the ability to match the type of provider that is going to be most effective for the patient.”

In treating patients, especially in mental healthcare, language and cultural barriers need to be considered. Dr. Kaftarian points out that “in the future, doctors are not going to be matched up with patients where they don’t communicate in the same language…or have some other type of cultural difference.”

Dr. Kaftarian goes on to explain that “matching the provider is not just a matter of culture and language, it’s also a matter of expertise. So, finding the right specialist for that patient is going to be very important.”

As technology advances, internet speeds increase, and more data integration happens, patients in need of mental healthcare will have a greater opportunity to match with a provider that will have access to their complete history and be better equipped to understand and work with them more closely.

More Than Half of US Adults Would Use Telehealth for Mental Health Care

Dr. Kaftarian stresses the importance of this access to data through the idea of longitudinal care, which he describes simply as “not reinventing the wheel.” He told virtual attendees that “when we are doing an initial assessment, we will already have tons of data on that patient,” therefore, lessening the need to spend time “getting up to speed.”

“Face-to-face will no longer be what people expect, in fact, the default will probably be telehealth and telepsychiatry,” Dr. Kaftarian concluded. Increased access and the ability for a patient to be perfectly matched with a provider will be the future of healthcare.

—Heather Flint

Reference

Kafarian E. Telespychiatry 2.0: Where do we go from here? Presented at: Psych Congress Elevate; June 11–13, 2021; Virtual.