For ResMed, a health care company specializing in respiratory devices such as CPAP machines, the pandemic forced customers to learn how to use the machines virtually—a complicated process that had previously required an in-person clinical interaction. Today, said Christen Chavez, ResMed’s vice president of product marketing, during COVID in some markets 50% of therapy setup was done virtually. Yet that number tailed off as the pandemic slowed, however—not because the instruction was unclear but because the follow-on was complicated and uncoordinated. “Something that is virtual should be more convenient, but it can actually take more work for the patient and care provider,” she said. For example, the care provider must deal with the complexity of communications and messaging platforms and find out which service a patient will use—whether it’s Zoom or another platform.

This realization has shifted ResMed’s investment focus to more of what Chavez called “virtual pathways.” She said, “We realized the connectedness between these types of solutions that we’re developing is so important … potentially more important than the actual value of [an individual] point solution.” It turns out that there’s a lot more to the virtual customer experience than simply the interaction with the product. If the system doesn’t support the patient experience, it won’t work—which in ResMed’s case can have serious health implications.

As a result, said Chavez, ResMed is considering how care providers “think about something that used to be a single visit or encounter with a patient and spreading that out into an onboarding experience”—providing information before the visit and support after they leave. At the same time, ResMed is serving patients in a more personalized way; they can choose whether to come into the clinic or use the online instruction modules. “There’s been no negative impact on the level of patient service.”