Hybrid care: as effective as standard care?

Pharmi often receives this general question (not always specific to pharmacy).

Honors students in Pharmacy at Utrecht University Tristan Risseeuw and Martha W. conducted research into this question for Pharmi in recent months using recent scientific literature. They bundled the results per pillar of the quadruple aim (QA). 

Here are the summarized conclusions per QA pillar based on selected 24 recent scientific publications:

Improvement of healthcare provider experience:
Healthcare professionals see the benefits of hybrid care.

Improvement of patient care
There is no consensus about the effectiveness of hybrid care versus regular care. In various RCTs, hybrid care appears to be just as effective as regular care. Retrospective research also shows the effectiveness of hybrid care interventions.

Reduction of healthcare costs
Hybrid care can be more cost-effective than regular care, although the data is not clear.

Improvement of patient experience
In general, hybrid care is considered positive from the patient's perspective. Factors that are important for a positive experience of hybrid care are the degree of connection with the healthcare provider and the ease of using online apps with technical support.

The limitations of this literature study were:

- There is little to no research within pharmacy, most knowledge has been gained within mental health care;
- Literature studies cannot always be directly compared;
- Different study designs have been chosen;
- The study sizes differ;
- Quantitative and qualitative research has been included;
- Search terms cannot always be clearly defined;
- Various forms of bias cannot be ruled out;
- The results of the studies are quite specific and cannot yet be sufficiently extrapolated to non-researched research groups.

Conclusion: hybrid care shows a positive trend in all pillars of the Quadruple Aim.

If we as a professional group accelerate the adoption of hybrid care in the coming years, thorough research into effectiveness should be an important part of the implementation.

Would you like to know more about the design of this study, the bibliography or how Pharmi conducts research with renowned institutes to demonstrate the value of MedicijnWijs hybrid care? Contact us!