Improving rural care and health equity with telemedicine

The concept of a "hub and spoke" model for telehealth, where hospitals and health systems can partner to bring specialist care closer to those who live in rural and underserved communities. Rather than requiring patients to travel to a health system's hub where most specialists are – or have clinicians travel to rural clinics to see patients – we work with them to enable their clinics within rural communities with virtual care capabilities so patients may remain within their local community while still accessing specialists they would have had to travel often hours to see. The ability to instead connect with that specialist virtually, either from home or a local provider office, can alleviate both the time and cost burden on patients and prevent burnout for the clinician as well.