The pandemic became the flashpoint that brought mainstream exposure to the mental health care gaps inherent America’s health system, particularly access to timely and quality care. As a result, there has been a rapid and compulsory transformation taking place where innovative and evidence-based virtual care and other digital tools have seen accelerated adoption. Telehealth strategies are now playing a larger role in supporting existing care protocols that provide improved access, scalability, and care capacity.

Telehealth incorporates various aspects of virtual care and has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments in health care. Telehealth can be broken into 4 distinct types: synchronous, asynchronous, remote monitoring, and mobile heallth¹. While it can be said that an ideal telehealth solution would incorporate each of these types, the asynchronous model remains one of the most overlooked. This could be attributed to a lack of understanding of how asynchronous fits into a telehealth strategy or the assumption that telehealth must include video.

While synchronous was the first of these types to face scrutiny in mental healthcare delivery, virtual video visits have become widely popular and effective in augmenting mental healthcare. The same stigma’s that were associated with synchronous utilization are now impacting the value perceptions asynchronous can deliver. "It's a technology [asynchronous] whose time has not yet come," says Oliver Lignell, vice president of virtual health at health system consultancy AVIA, which helps members accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. "It's not yet mainstream, but it should be."² As virtual therapy sessions become standard practice, the distinctive and untapped value of asynchronous to increase access to quality care will become indisputable.