Center for Virtual Care Value and Equity (ViVE)

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Abstract Importance: Despite the emergence of virtual care (VC) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sustainability of these programs is unknown because of concerns relating to health access disparities, future payment parity, effective integration into clinical workflows, and the misalignment of many of the goals of VC integration with a fee-for-service payment environment. Lack of access to Real-World VC Data and knowledge of the unique needs of different VC stakeholder groups exacerbates health disparities and can impede attaining financial sustainability. Similarly, there is no consensus on evidence-based research measurements specific to VC, which hinders the effectiveness and sustainability of VC Objective: Lay strong foundation for future adoption and dissemination of VC research capabilities. Specific aims: (1) Build and promote a productive coalition of internal and external resources, thought leaders and stakeholder representatives to enable the use of Real-World VC Data and to generate innovative and pragmatic approaches to advance scalable equity and value in VC both locally and nationally. (2) Assess the facilitators and barriers for key stakeholders to achieve equitable and sustainable VC by conducting two rounds of semi-structured interviews. (3) Develop and validate consensus around VC Equity and Value frameworks (e.g., outcome metrics) that will accelerate future translational research and provide evidence-based guidance for VC service and policy. (4) Train workforce to implement validated VC Equity and Value frameworks to improve human health. Center Activities: ViVE will continuously grow by learning from conducting its research and supporting the research of others. To the extent, ViVE will create new infrastructure and provide access to Real-World VC Research Data and VC Expertise that will support and advance VC research. ViVE will assess the facilitators and barriers to achieving equitable and sustainable VC from key stakeholders using semi-structured interviews. Additionally, ViVE will shift the current status quo of VC research by building consensus around VC equity and value frameworks. To ensure the effective implementation of these frameworks, ViVE will conduct workforce training sessions to improve the knowledge and skills required to implement VC frameworks. Expected outcomes: On successful completion of our research, we expect contributions to include (1) accelerating NC TraCS (UNC CTSA) clinical and translational science by expediting the development of a VC research hub, (2) developing a VC coalition that advances translational VC research by enabling researchers to access Real-World VC Data, resources, and expertise, (3) building and validating VC measurement approaches and outcomes metrics for equity and value, and (4) demonstrating real-world utility of validated outcomes and measurements through implementation in clinical research studies. Page 1 of 1