As Sanford prepares to break ground on virtual care center, CEO Bill Gassen sees future in telemedicine
Sanford Health will host a summit on the future of virtual medicine next month, while at the same time breaking ground on its new virtual care center.
Bill Gassen, Sanford’s president and CEO, discussed virtual health care Wednesday during a webinar. He was joined by Dedi Gilad, the CEO and a founder of TytoCare, a company that is focused on bringing quality medical care via telemedicine to rural communities around the world.
Sanford’s virtual care center was made possible by a $350 million donation from T. Denny Sanford, the founder of First Premier Bank. It will be located at the Sanford Sports Complex, and be home to health care providers the health system hopes can bridge a gap in quality health care in rural areas. South Dakota, Gassen noted, has five of the poorest counties in the United States, including the poorest in Buffalo County.
“What that means is, we have a lot of work to do,” Gassen said.
Rural communities, defined as 50,000 or fewer people, suffer from not just a lack of health care access, but other problems that include food insecurity, poverty and chronic health problems.
But getting to those communities with virtual health can be a challenge when they also don’t have access to highspeed broadband.
That is one issue that will be addressed at next month’s conference in Sioux Falls. Another will be payment for virtual medical services. President Donald Trump’s administration issued waivers that enabled medical providers to receive reimbursements for virtual care at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but those waivers were only temporary.
“We would love to make those permanent,” Gassen said.
The pandemic played a big role in expanding virtual care opportunities. What was once thought to be the future of virtual medicine had been thrust into the future, Gilad said.
“It’s not anymore a future direction. It is here and now,” he said.
Telemedicine was mainly used in urgent care situations, but it has expanded to be more holistic, Gilad said, incorporating primary care, prevention, chronic health management and in other areas.
Gilad said he is most excited by the use of artificial intelligence in the future of telemedicine.
“AI on real data is a big one for me,” he said.
Sanford’s virtual medicine conference is scheduled for Aug. 23.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sanford CEO Bill Gassen sees future in telemedicine
