Whether you became a de-facto online school teacher for your kids or planned a family holiday celebration entirely on Zoom, the COVID-19 pandemic forced each of us to adapt to a new normal while much of the world went remote.

Health systems were no different.

As healthcare professionals quickly adapted to remote care, they bolstered existing remote monitoring technologies, forged new remote programming technologies and changed the way they perform clinical trials, business processes, product development and regulatory approval — all to provide optimal care to their patients while keeping them safe at home.

Three Abbott experts ...

• Dr. Phillip B. Adamson, division vice president and chief medical officer of heart failure
• Heidi Hinrichs, division vice president of global clinical and regulatory affairs of cardiac rhythm management
• Dr. Christopher Piorkowski, division vice president and chief medical officer of electrophysiology

... sat down with Modern Healthcare and Dr. Leslie Saxon, electrophysiologist and executive director of University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing to discuss remote care's new normal, common practices in the age of COVID-19 and how changes spurred by COVID-19 will continue to impact care in the future.

"When innovative companies like Abbott focus on bringing things to the patient to change and improve their outcomes, then everything wins, and that access begins to expand," Dr. Adamson said. "Patient focus on outcomes, improving the empowerment of the patient and bringing the digital world into a larger group of people that can benefit is really how we approach this in a systematic way."

Whether it's mainstream online education, cocktails-to-go or telehealth, adapting to a new normal has birthed innovation. The trick in ensuring these innovations are here to stay relies in our vision — ensuring that patients of all backgrounds, anywhere, can receive the best care when and where they need it.