Diversity & Inclusion
COVID-19 / Health / Health tech

This healthcare provider for 450K women and mothers is now offering telemedicine to all of its patients

Arlington-based Advantia Health's telemedicine visits will cover non-urgent and urgent matters including discussing gynecological issues, contraception consultations, prescription refills and COVID-19 assessments.

Doctors are going digital. (Public domain photo via National Institutes of Health)

This editorial article is a part of Technical.ly's Healthcare Technologies Month of our editorial calendar.

A month in, we’re all familiar need for social distancing to flatten the curve. That applies to medical offices, too, as much as possible.

Accordingly, Arlington, Virginia-based healthcare provider Advantia Health is now offering telemedicine video visits to all of its patients.

Founded in 2014, Advantia exclusively focuses on women and maternal health and offers a tech component allowing its patients to easily access and communicate with their doctors. The company has 60 offices, 30 of which are located in the DMV region. With providing direct care through more than 200 providers, Advantia serves more than 450,000 patients across its OB-GYN and coordinated specialist offices.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Advantia was offering telemedicine at select clinics but now, all of its offices have adopted virtual visits.

“Advantia’s mission is to transform healthcare for all women,” said Advantia CEO Sean Glass in a statement. “By quickly making telemedicine available for as many appointments as possible, Advantia is ensuring that women have access to the high-quality healthcare they need, no matter what is going on in the world.”

Advantia’s telemedicine visits will cover non-urgent and urgent matters including discussing gynecological issues, contraception consultations, prescription refills and COVID-19 assessments. The company will still conduct in-person appointments for matters that can’t be handled virtually.

The company said it is taking extra precautions in its offices to keep its patients and healthcare providers healthy and safe, including transitioning all non-essential appointments to telemedicine so patients, including pregnant women, can receive safer care in-person. The company is frequently deep cleaning its facilities, and conducting trainings to better equip its health care providers to deal with COVID-19, it reports.

“Telemedicine appointments are available to all our patients. Right now, Advantia providers are offering telehealth mental wellness appointments to all our pregnant patients as well, to help them through these trying times,” Advantia Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lisa Shah told Technical.ly. “We are working with all our pregnant patients to determine at what stages telehealth could make the most sense for them. We are seeing our pregnant patients for key in-person appointments that require sonograms and additional tests.”

Advantia’s telemedicine offerings include access to its Pacify app, a platform that provides new or expectant moms on-demand 24/7 access to nationwide networks of maternal and pediatric specialists. Advantia acquired the health tech company and its app offerings last May.

The company’s transition to telemedicine visits comes after it launched a partnership with Philadelphia’s health department to offer its Pacify app to new mothers for free through the pandemic. Prior to the global crisis, health departments in West Virginia, Tennessee, Virginia, Nevada, Dallas, Texas and D.C. were already offering the Pacify app for free to Women, Infant and Children program participants, Shah said.

It also comes after Advantia landed a $45 million investment from BlueMountain Capital Management in January to grow its services.

The company anticipates an increase in telemedicine due to the spread of COVID-19 that will last past the pandemic.

Series: Healthcare Technologies Month 2020 / Coronavirus
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