Webinar Recap: 5 Digital Health Trends Defining Virtual Care in 2026
Virtual care has crossed an important threshold.
In a recent LinkedIn Live conversation with Chrissy Farr and Second Opinion Media, leaders from Wheel, Maven Clinic, Found, and Manatt unpacked the latest virtual care utilization data and what it means for the future of care delivery. The discussion made one thing clear: virtual care is no longer an experimental access layer or a convenience alternative. It is becoming a habit-forming, longitudinal care model that fills gaps traditional healthcare has struggled to address.
Across clinical, operator, and investor perspectives, five themes are defining where virtual care is headed next.
1. Virtual care has matured from episodic access to habit-forming care
One of the strongest themes in the discussion was that virtual care has moved beyond “telehealth 1.0.”
As Wheel CEO Michelle Davey explained, the majority of growth is no longer coming from first-time, one-off visits. More than 70% of visits on the Wheel platform now come from returning users, signaling that patients are building habits around virtual care rather than testing it occasionally.
This shift reflects a broader maturation of the model. Virtual care today is no longer limited to transactional urgent or convenience care. Patients are increasingly using virtual care to comprehensively manage health over time with support that acknowledges more complex conditions and treats them across-therapeutic areas.
➤ Why this matters for digital health
Growth is driven by repeat behavior. Platforms that design for continuity, follow-up, and habit formation are better positioned than those optimized solely for access.
2. Women’s health is the front door to longitudinal digital care
The panel consistently returned to women’s health as the clearest entry point into longitudinal virtual care, particularly for women in midlife.
Clinicians on the panel emphasized that women in their 40s and 50s are often managing overlapping concerns at once. Perimenopause, menopause, sleep disruption, metabolic changes, weight gain, fertility transitions, and preventive care rarely fit neatly into a single diagnosis or appointment. Traditional brick-and-mortar practices, optimized for acute and billable conditions, are poorly designed for these in-between needs.
As Neel Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, noted, this is not new. Women have long been the front door to healthcare. What is new is the availability of digital models that can actually support complexity rather than deflect it.
Wheel’s data reinforces this reality. Women aged 43-58 represent the fastest-growing cohort on the platform, and women’s health accounts for roughly half of total visit volume. These visits are not endpoints. They are entry points into ongoing relationships.
➤ Why this matters for digital health
Women’s health is now an organizing layer for care journeys. Designing for women’s needs often unlocks broader engagement across families, conditions, and life stages.
3. GLP-1s are an accelerant, not the story
Weight management and GLP-1 therapies featured prominently in the conversation, but not in the way many industry trend pieces frame them.
Rather than treating GLP-1s as a standalone category, panelists described them as a powerful on-ramp into longitudinal care. Rekha Kumar, Senior Medical Advisor at Found, emphasized that patients are increasingly seeking support earlier, often before conditions meet formal diagnostic thresholds. Abnormal weight gain, metabolic changes during perimenopause, sleep issues, and early dysfunction frequently show up together.
GLP-1s have lowered the barrier to engagement and created momentum for behavior change. But the real shift happens when that momentum is supported over time. Wheel’s data shows that patients entering through weight management are far more likely to engage in follow-up care, diagnostics, and preventive services, driving deeper relationships rather than transactional encounters.
As several panelists noted, real-world use is also moving faster than formal clinical guidelines. Off-label use, micro-dosing, and longevity-oriented experimentation are already happening, largely through digital platforms, because the traditional system cannot accommodate them.
➤ Why this matters for digital health
GLP-1s are forcing care models to evolve. Platforms that treat them as access problems will struggle. Those that integrate them into broader, longitudinal programs are better aligned with how patients are actually using care.
4. Consumer behavior has outpaced traditional system design
A recurring observation across the panel was that consumer behavior is moving faster than medical practice.
Patients are no longer searching symptoms the way they once did. They are prompting, comparing experiences, and seeking clarity before they ever enter a clinical setting. Trust in digital health brands has grown rapidly because these platforms solve real problems quickly, often in moments when the traditional system feels inaccessible or frustrating.
From an investor perspective, Shareef Ganham of Manatt noted that many early market forecasts underestimated how quickly virtual care could expand once patients identified gaps in their own care journeys. Solving a narrow problem, like a UTI or medication refill, builds trust. That trust then expands the scope of what patients are willing to manage virtually.
Payment behavior reflects this shift as well. Patients increasingly blend cash-pay visits with insurance-covered services, choosing convenience, speed, and transparency when it matters most.
➤ Why this matters for digital health
Virtual care is no longer a fallback. It’s becoming the default starting point for navigating the healthcare system. Products designed to capture demand earlier and guide patients forward will define the next phase of growth.
5. The future of care is integrated, proactive, and data-driven
Looking ahead, panelists agreed that the next leap in virtual care will not come from isolated innovations, but from integration.
Wearables and connected devices are rapidly evolving from wellness tools into clinically meaningful sources of data. As Neel Shah observed, the hardware underlying these technologies is beginning to meet clinical standards, enabling more continuous and proactive care. At the same time, advances in AI and large language models are reshaping how patients enter the system, often acting as the first step before a clinical interaction.
Rather than replacing clinicians, these tools function as extensions of the clinical exam, enabling more precise monitoring, earlier intervention, and better coordination across care modalities.
Longevity, prevention, and optimization emerged as unifying themes, particularly as men’s health, metabolic care, and hormone health converge in digital environments that can support experimentation and personalization more easily than traditional settings.
➤ Why this matters for digital health
The future belongs to platforms that can orchestrate complexity. Continuous data, AI-enabled guidance, and flexible care pathways will matter more than standalone features.
What this means for digital health leaders in 2026
Taken together, these signals point to a clear shift.
Virtual care is becoming core infrastructure for how patients manage health across time, conditions, and life stages. Growth will favor platforms that prioritize longitudinal engagement, integrate emerging technologies thoughtfully, and meet patients where behavior is already changing.
The next era of virtual care will be defined less by access and more by how well care holds together over time.
