Jennifer Kent, a senior research analyst with Parks Associates, also says she sees the aforementioned challenges as opportunities. Whether organizations are struggling to meet the criteria for EHR meaningful use or reduce hospital readmissions as healthcare reform mandates, they can turn to virtual care to fill the gaps.

Consumers with access to online health services - admittedly less than half of Americans - use them to fill prescriptions, schedule or change the time of an appointment and email a doctor, Kent says, referring to Parks Associates research conducted at the end of 2012.

The "care gap" exists, she adds, when consumers are asked what services they want; these range from live chats with health experts to monitoring their recovery from surgery or prolonged hospitalization.

From the article, "Healthcare IT Struggles to Keep Up With Mobile Health Demands" by Brian Eastwood.

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