Digitalisation is transforming the nature of healthcare by sidestepping previous physical constraints on provision. But, warns Paul Grant, there are implications for laboratory services we must not ignore.
A ‘virtual hospital’ is an evolving concept which allows the provision of healthcare services through telemedicine and digital platforms, combining digital technologies along with a reconsideration of the way that healthcare services are operated. They allow the creation of new pathways of care, many of which are remote and asynchronous.
Unlike a traditional hospital where patients are admitted and treated on-site, a virtual hospital works primarily through healthcare professionals being able to remotely assess, diagnose, treat and monitor patients through digital means.
A key question is what are the implications for laboratory services? The impacts will revolve around logistics, patient expectations, data management and sharing, communication systems, and collaboration between disparate healthcare providers.
Decentralised testing
Given that virtual medicine is usually based around decentralised healthcare, it is likely that there will be a rise in point of care testing and home-based diagnostics (which may or may not be self-service for the patient). This potentially means that there will be a reduced reliance on centralised labs and increasing demand for laboratories to validate point of care testing devices to ensure their accuracy and reliability, along with greater need for mobile phlebotomy services and at-home blood testing sample kits (which are often more expensive). Additionally, virtual hospitals tend to emphasise preventive care, creating a higher demand for routine diagnostics and higher volume of pathology tests overall.
Digital tool integration
Virtual hospitals depend heavily on digital tools for monitoring and diagnostics, such as wearables and apps that collect health data, often linked to kit such as network-linked glucose meters or personal INR monitors. Laboratories will increasingly need to develop integrations with multiple digital health platforms for seamless data sharing and may need to support or collaborate with software and device manufacturers to interpret and validate results. Furthermore, patients in virtual hospital settings often expect quicker test results to support their diagnostic journey and facilitate updates, which may require investment in faster diagnostic technologies.
Enhanced logistics and supply chains
Home-based testing and virtual care will understandably increase the logistical complexity of transporting samples from patients’ homes to labs. There needs to be collaboration with courier services for expedited sample transport and an expansion of lab networks to manage the workload with greater coordination between local and regional labs.
There will be a reduced reliance on centralised labs and increasing demand for laboratories to validate point of care testing devices to ensure their accuracy and reliability
Therefore, there will need to be the creation of robust supply chain solutions for sample collection and delivery as well as the adoption of new technologies like drones or smart tracking systems to maintain sample integrity during transport.
Regulatory and QA challenges
Given that virtual hospitals operate in nontraditional and dynamic ways, the reliance on diverse technologies and remote diagnostics introduces more regulatory concerns. We’ve already mentioned the need for practices to evolve to ensure the accuracy and quality control of remote diagnostics and point of care testing kits, but there will also be a need to standardise practices for diverse diagnostic tools.
Virtual hospitals generate vast amounts of data, requiring integration into electronic health records, so there will need to be investment in data management systems and enhanced systems to protect patient data and comply with privacy regulations. There is also the spectre of the increasing use of AI to analyse laboratory data to interpret results and predict disease risks. So technical collaboration with AI platforms will be required, following appropriate assessment and approvals, which will be a power-hungry exercise.
Workforce dynamics
The virtual healthcare model is also lik ely to alter how lab professionals interact with other healthcare providers. There will be an increasing need for laboratory personnel to engage remotely with virtual care teams, which will require an increased reliance on IT and informatics skills. However, the opposite may also be true that more virtual care has the potential for reduced in-person interactions between lab staff and clinicians, which would arguably be detrimental. Going forward there will be more opportunities for partnerships with wellness programmes and chronic disease management services; so there will be a focus on screening tests and higher numbers of routine testing.
The rise of virtual hospitals is set to significantly transform laboratory services, with decentralisation taking place. This will accelerate the need for better digital integration, along with the need to maintain quality control if systems and processes work in new ways. Laboratories must be flexible and adapt by embracing advanced technologies, rethinking logistics, and collaborating with virtual healthcare ecosystems. This evolution positions laboratories not just as diagnostic hubs but as integral partners in delivering seamless virtual healthcare.
Dr Paul Grant is a digital health consultant and the author of The Virtual Hospital (Springer Nature 2024)
