Dr. Jeff Wessler (MD MPhil FACC) is a virtual cardiologist, the Founder of Heartbeat Health, and on clinical faculty at Northwell Health.
For all the advances in medicine—AI-assisted imaging, wearable diagnostics, personalized drug therapies—I think the way healthcare is delivered still feels like it was designed for a different era. Patients often navigate a maze of phone calls, referrals, prior authorizations and multi-week waits just to see a specialist, let alone receive timely intervention.
Meanwhile, healthcare businesses continue to pour resources into developing new technologies under the assumption that innovation alone will translate into better outcomes.
This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a business model problem.
As a cardiologist and the founder of a virtual cardiology company, I’ve spent the past several years managing the gap between what’s possible in medicine and what actually reaches patients. This piece was inspired by the daily tension I see between cutting-edge technology and an outdated system that slows everything down—especially for people with serious cardiac conditions who can’t afford to wait.
The Tech-First Fallacy In Healthcare
Healthcare has seen an explosion of technological advances in the past decade—from precision medicine to machine learning algorithms that can predict heart failure. But for all this innovation, outcomes could remain stagnant if we don’t rethink how care is delivered. In short, new tools don’t automatically translate to better access or efficiency.
I’ve found the problem is that too many healthcare businesses are built with a tech-first mindset when they should be delivery-first. Digital health solutions often assume that simply introducing a new technology—whether it’s remote monitoring, AI diagnostics or virtual care—will improve patient outcomes. But without rethinking how and when care is actually provided, the impact is often marginal at best.
A prime example is cardiology. It’s a field of cutting-edge science trapped in an outdated delivery model. We have AI-powered imaging that can detect cardiac abnormalities with stunning accuracy and wearable EKGs that can flag dangerous arrhythmias in real time—yet when a patient reports concerning symptoms, the system often responds with a multi-week referral process and a “we’ll call you back” approach. Atrial fibrillation, heart failure and high-risk coronary disease don’t wait, yet care for these conditions still moves at the speed of fax machines and phone tag.
A Delivery-First Approach To Healthcare
What healthcare needs is a shift in focus: Technology should serve delivery, not the other way around. Here’s what that looks like:
1. From Episodic To Continuous Care
The traditional model revolves around scheduled visits, but chronic diseases don’t work on a calendar. A delivery-first model integrates real-time monitoring with proactive clinical action. To accomplish this, healthcare organizations need to operationalize data streams—not just collect them. That means integrating remote monitoring tools with clinical workflows that trigger timely interventions: Think a heart failure alert from a connected scale that routes directly to a care team for same-day medication adjustment.
It also requires clear protocols, team-based triage and payment models that reward proactive care, not just face-to-face visits.
2. From Physician-Centric To Team-Based Care
Tech-enabled solutions often assume the physician remains the center of the care model. Instead, I suggest organizations design systems that incorporate advanced practice providers, care coordinators and AI-driven triage to optimize patient flow and clinician efficiency.
3. From Brick-And-Mortar To Frictionless Access
I think the idea that high-risk patients should wait weeks for an in-person visit while their risk escalates is absurd. If we can detect atrial fibrillation from a smartwatch, there should be a seamless process to escalate that to care within hours, not weeks.
4. From Siloed To Fully Integrated Data
Despite advancements in interoperability, many healthcare systems still operate in silos. To create a true delivery-first approach, organizations should ensure that data moves with the patient, allowing every provider in the chain to make informed, real-time decisions.
The Real Metric For Innovation: Speed To Impact
Tech alone doesn’t fix healthcare—it’s how that tech integrates into care delivery that determines success. I think the most meaningful innovations will be measured not by the sophistication of the tool but by how quickly they move a patient from diagnosis to intervention.
A breakthrough doesn’t matter if the patient can’t reach it. And right now, too many can’t.
If healthcare truly wants to innovate, it has to stop treating technology as the solution and start using it to remove barriers between patients and the care they need. This is where the next generation of healthcare businesses should focus—not just on what can be built, but on how care can be delivered better.
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