Challenges for health systems seeking to embrace virtual health care for population health

A gradual move to proactive illness prevention requires a strategic shift towards population health management by health care systems. Such a shift becomes necessary to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and manage costs better, as life expectancy increases and chronic illness becomes more prevalent. Health system digitisation and greater focus on virtual health care (VHC) can contribute to active population health management. For that to happen, health systems need to address and overcome several challenges currently preventing the rapid introduction and scale up of VHC for population health; these include implementing changes in care models and focus on digitally enabled population health approaches; addressing culture and mindset barriers; resolving regulatory bottlenecks; overcoming technical limitations, inter-operability and data security issues; and, finally, aligning stakeholder incentives and expectations.