Lessons Learned from the MAVEN Project Pilot: Using Physician Volunteers to Increase Access to Care via Telehealth

The Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network (MAVEN) Project was one of the first programs in the United States to create a corps of experienced volunteer physicians to provide consults to providers in rural and inner-city safety-net clinics through telehealth. In the fall of 2015, the MAVEN Project started offering telehealth visits, with the expectation of serving three safety-net clinics in Massachusetts and California for a six-month period. RAND Corporation researchers aimed to conduct a qualitative evaluation of the pilot, describing the program's strengths and limitations to inform quality-improvement efforts within the program itself, and to provide lessons learned for other telehealth initiatives under development in the United States. They obtained data from MAVEN Project administrators on telehealth visit volume and site characteristics. They also conducted 13 semistructured interviews with volunteers, on-site referring physicians, and administrators across the three pilot sites and, for comparison, three representatives of additional telehealth programs that link physician volunteers to underserved communities. They identified themes in the interview data and developed recommendations for addressing program challenges or limitations. They conclude that, although stakeholders involved in the pilot were pleased with many of its features, further formative development and experimentation will be needed to address identified barriers to implementation and to establish sustainable and scalable processes. Because the demand for such services on the part of community health centers, as well as the supply of physicians interested in volunteering, will continue to grow, this model, when fully developed, has the potential to increase access to care for underserved populations.