We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 4/7 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Michael Joseph (@HealthData4All) from @PrimeDimensions on the topic of “How to Enhance the Patient Journey and Patient Experience Using Digital Health Solutions”.
The healthcare industry is now immersed in digital transformation — connected devices and solutions which allow for the rapid exchange of information among patients, providers, payers and caregivers. As value-based care models become more pervasive, care delivery will become less episodic and more continuous, compunding the unprecedented proliferation of digital health solutions. Today’s digital health solutions are centered around apps for smartphones and tablets that facilitate and automate more frequent and appropriate interactions to keep patients connected in the ambulatory setting. Common features include:
(1) Connection with remote sensors and monitoring devices for disease management
(2) Integration with patient clinical and demographic data to deliver contextually and clinically relevant information to patients, including reminders, notifications and alerts, to avoid adverse events and eliminate care gaps
(3) On-demand, seamless access to the proper healthcare professionals via text, phone and/or virtual visits
(4) Information to patients on disease prevention, healthy lifestyles and wellness
(5) Recommendations and guidance for at-risk patients to appropriate clinical, ancillary or public health services
As the trend for digital tools is moving toward mobile platforms and cloud-based services, innovators and designers must also consider how to enhance and enrich features and capabilities, so that the tools remain adaptive, flexible, simple and convenient. Through IT modernization, next-generation database solutions and analytic platforms enhance our ability to extract actionable clinical intelligence from ever-increasing volumes of health data and move toward systems for cognitive computing, simultaneously running on millions of connected devices. We’re just at the dawn of a digital transformation in which mobile and wearable devices are commonplace. But gaining traction are implantable devices, cyber pills and smart tattoos that can send constant streams of physiological data for near real time analyses.
Digital health requires a dedicated, highly skilled, multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians, researchers, technologists, data scientists, IT architects, solution designer and developers to guide, build and deploy solutions that yield measurable, impactful results. It requires making investment decisions based on the business case and a well-defined, complete set of evaluation criteria that align with strategic goals and objectives. It requires visionary leaders who champion innovation, make the tough decisions to execute, and persevere, often amidst adversity from conflicting stakeholder interests, with a sense of purpose, accountability and transparency.
The purported benefits of digital health are improved patient interactions and care coordination, increased provider productivity and efficiency, and encouraging behavior change for healthy lifestyles. The key to success is knowing how to appropriately engage users, based on necessity, urgency and personal preferences. i.e how, when and where to maximize frequency and depth of engagement so that digital health becomes ubiquitous to the patient experience.
For today’s #HITsm, we will discuss the path toward digital health transformation and how to enhance the patient journey and patient experience.
The Questions
T1: What are the barriers to user adoption of digital health solutions? (“User” can be patient, clinician or caregiver.) #HITsm
T2: Notwithstanding specific purpose and function, what essential factors must be considered during the planning and design phase of any digital health solution? And who must be involved? #HITsm
T3: Given the explosion of digital health solutions, how do decision-makers determine which ones are most effective for their patient population and/or chronic condition, based on the features described above? #HITsm
T4: What information is necessary to establish credibility and validity of the conveyed value proposition and promises of a digital health solution? #HITsm
T5: Upon implementing a digital health solution, how do you evaluate its impact with respect to the patient journey and patient experience? Is it possible to correlate better health outcomes as well? (Otherwise, why would anyone pay for it?) #HITsm
Bonus: Can you name a digital health solution that you’d use today if it were available? #HITsm
Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
4/14 – Healthcare Content Creation for the Audience Economy
Hosted by Jess Clifton (@jslentzclifton), Sarah Bennight (@sarahbennight), and Steve Sisko (@shimcode)
4/21 – Innovation vs Incremental
Hosted by @Colin_Hung
4/28 – TBD
5/5 – TBD
Hosted by @IntelHealth
We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always let us know if you have ideas for how to make #HITsm better.
If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.
Those topics for the 4/7 chat are way over 140 characters. It’ll be interesting to see how they are conveyed at tweetchat time. (I guess the entire, over 140 character topic can be conveyed via a graphic but that’s a precedent in the #HITsm chat)