Designing Integrated Virtual Care Partnerships: Insights from a Practice-Based Case Series at Mayo Clinic

Description

Lindsey M. Philpot and co-authors share a 2026 practice-based case series on building virtual care partnerships at Mayo Clinic. Millions of Americans face gaps in primary and specialty care because of distance, provider shortages, and inequity. The paper describes how an academic medical center folded outside virtual providers into its own services, using both collaborative arrangements, where virtual clinicians work alongside in-house teams, and referral arrangements.

Six design principles anchor the account: acute access, continuity, convenience, cost, reach, and smooth transitions between virtual and in-person care. The authors stress that partnerships hold up only when they fit the host organization's culture, rest on secure data sharing, and sit on reimbursement structures that pay for the work. For other health systems weighing similar partnerships, the case series offers a tested template and a warning that technology alone does not integrate care.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13311828