Recently, Becker’s released a state of affairs on the 2024 US healthcare system highlighting key financial, technological, and human-centered resources plaguing and abetting the current and future state of care delivery.

At Hippo, we understand that in a consumer-driven society, the needs of patients (and providers) have changed. As such, our platform is built upon the current and future needs and desires of patients and those who care for them, extending specialty services into the community, into the home, to save time, cost, and improve access to quality care whenever and wherever patients need it.

Here’s a brief overview of how Hippo solves against three of the key issues highlighted in Becker’s report which are prevalent within the modern healthcare system.

Problem #1: Healthcare has a binary thinking problem:

“It’s not tech or people, it’s both. Technology plays an increasingly supportive role for efficiency and accessibility in healthcare, but it will never be able to compensate for the majority of skill, expertise, talent, experience and human touch that powers a health system.”

• We wholeheartedly believe that it is the amalgamation of technology and human capital that will enable the more effective use of resources to foster collaboration between patients and physicians through the marshaling of next-generation virtual care systems. Current models are outdated, and in order to transition care from a hospital-centric, “hub and spoke” model to where it should reside – with the patient, the family, and the clinicians who care for them – is only possible if we think outside the “big box” hospital and empower a new model of truly patient-centered care delivery.

Problem #2: Healthcare has a simple math problem:

“The population of the United States is more than 334 million people, and we have 1.1 million active physicians. We are hyper short on primary care physicians and specialists, with one of the lower counts of physicians per capita compared to other developed nations. This one problem spills over to affect most everything else in the industry.”

• Hippo can be the catalyst for fundamental change in healthcare, addressing the shortage of physicians by using existing assets more effectively and enabling allied healthcare professionals to practice at the top of their license, guided and mentored by remote specialty physicians. We facilitate collaboration between social and medical services at the point of care, integrating currently fragmented resources and upskilling the clinical workforce with a practical “treat and train” approach. Our active collaboration can include family members and community health workers to reach the patient where they live in a trusted and convenient way. This force multiplier can reach into the home effectively and economically when part of a coherent, virtual team. This is an untapped, vital resource that can change financial and medical outcomes. Change begins at the home with those who know, influence, and care for the patient. By convening social service workers and clinicians remotely, we ensure cohesive, “Coactive Care” which takes into account social determinants of health. Hippo’s AR-driven platform provides the necessary mechanism for collaboration, optimizing local, state, and federal programs to create a unified and efficient healthcare delivery system.

Problem #3: Senior care raises massive needs and it’s increasingly hard to make the numbers work:

“The aging population is driving demand for specialized services, but meeting seniors’ complex needs often requires substantial investments in staffing, equipment, infrastructure and wraparound services. As patient acuity and cost of care continue to rise and reimbursement rates remain stagnant, hospitals and health systems face mounting pressure to make the numbers work within increasingly tight constraints.”

• The rapidly aging population is driving increased demand for specialized senior care services, requiring substantial staffing, equipment, and infrastructure. However, addressing this challenge in perpetuity necessitates more than just healthcare provisions; it requires promoting widespread lifestyle changes to reduce the overall disease load. Poor lifestyle choices made earlier in life lead to chronic diseases in old age, increasing healthcare burdens. But, lifestyle choices exist for powerful reasons. We must have equally powerful and pervasive alternatives that change the behaviors of the individual, their families, and friends. The workforce extenders such as family members and community healthcare workers can be important agents for change. To effectively manage lifestyle choices, employer, governmental, religious, educational, and recreational entities must work together to lead, inform, inspire, and provide practical solutions for healthier living, as physicians can only influence behavior to a limited extent. By focusing on prevention and healthy lifestyles, we can reduce the incidence of chronic diseases, easing the strain on healthcare systems and ensuring more sustainable senior care. Comprehensive and collaborative are the twin goals and outcomes of Hippo Virtual Care. See our groundbreaking white paper on The Future of Healthcare: Polymorphic Medicine.

Hippo recognizes the evolving needs of patients in a consumer-driven society. Our Augmented Reality platform extends specialty services into the community and home, saving time and costs while improving access to quality care whenever and wherever it’s needed. Our approach involves moving the hub to the patient’s point of preference and having the spokes move inward to support the patient, their family, and their local clinicians. By in-sourcing expertise at every opportunity, we build local capabilities rather than drain them, ensuring that scarce specialists “do only what only they can do.” This restoration of local capability and trust enhances the essential personal relationship between patient and clinician. Expertise is brought in when, where, and how it is needed to get the diagnosis, treatment, and plan right the first time, every time. This “back to the future” solution combines the best of the past and present, bringing it to where it is needed most.