Beyond the Pill: Fulfilling the Promise of Connected Health
It’s no surprise that the “new healthcare" collaboration model envisioned between healthcare providers, patients, payers, and other stakeholders is a national priority. An increasing focus on wellness and, more recently, the Affordable Care Act’s impetus for improved access, quality of care, and outcomes have already stimulated many changes. Combined with the incentives and standards for EHR “meaningful use," it’s clear the future of healthcare is technology-enabled, BIG-data-informed, connected, consumer-empowered… Expert Matt Balogh, Senior VP, Director of Technology with Ogilvy CommonHealth, part of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide. Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide is committed to creativity and effectiveness in healthcare communications, everywhere. With 60 offices across 33 countries, the group provides marketing services including brand identity and development, clinical trial recruitment, digital/interactive services, direct-to-consumer, direct-to-patient, global integration, managed care marketing, market research and analytics, media planning and buying, medical advertising and promotion, medical education, public affairs and relations, relationship marketing, and strategic consulting. The network also offers scientific communications and publications services through a wholly owned separate legal entity. For more information, visit ogilvycommonhealth.com. I It’s no surprise that the “new healthcare" collaboration model envisioned between healthcare providers, patients, payers, and other stakeholders is a national priority. An increasing focus on wellness and, more recently, the Affordable Care Act’s impetus for improved access, quality of care, and outcomes have already stimulated many changes. Combined with the incentives and standards for EHR “meaningful use," it’s clear the future of healthcare is technology-enabled, BIG-data-informed, connected, consumer-empowered… Expert Matt Balogh, Senior VP, Director of Technology with Ogilvy CommonHealth, part of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide. Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide is committed to creativity and effectiveness in healthcare communications, everywhere. With 60 offices across 33 countries, the group provides marketing services including brand identity and development, clinical trial recruitment, digital/interactive services, direct-to-consumer, direct-to-patient, global integration, managed care marketing, market research and analytics, media planning and buying, medical advertising and promotion, medical education, public affairs and relations, relationship marketing, and strategic consulting. The network also offers scientific communications and publications services through a wholly owned separate legal entity. For more information, visit ogilvycommonhealth.com. It’s no surprise that the “new healthcare" collaboration model envisioned between healthcare providers, patients, payers, and other stakeholders is a national priority. An increasing focus on wellness and, more recently, the Affordable Care Act’s impetus for improved access, quality of care, and outcomes have already stimulated many changes. Combined with the incentives and standards for EHR “meaningful use," it’s clear the future of healthcare is technology-enabled, BIG-data-informed, connected, consumer-empowered, social and mobile. For years, doctors prescribed treatment, hoping that the patient would adhere to it. Unfortunately, most patients had little to no support once they left the office. This, of course, was before the proliferation of powerful mobile devices, databases, and bandwidth advances. Today, adherence means treating the mind, body, and spirit of individuals. Going “beyond the pill" is an integrated approach to individual ecosystems of adherence (eating right, exercising, tracking, informing, and more) that leverage emerging mobile health technologies (smartphones, personal health sensors, connected medical devices, EHR and HIE systems), enabled through coordinating super-platforms, all paired with deliberate social and support communities to create actionable, personal insights in real-time, when and where patients need them most. Mobile-Enabled Mobile technology enables us to execute on the promise of truly contextual patient support. A common mistake is considering mobile devices a channel; they’re not. Externally they seamlessly pair with fitness sensors, homes, medical devices, and much more. Internally they are a powerful portal which connects patients to the supercomputing cloud able to infer and trigger on- and off-line support. Smartphones are location-aware, network-enabled mini-computers with an array of sensors and apps we carry with us at almost all times. Today, 84% of people worldwide say they can’t go a day without their mobile device (45% can’t go more than a few hours), according to a 2012 TIME mobility poll. This power of persistent connectivity is breaking barriers and opening up new possibilities — and it’s transforming healthcare. Sixth Sense Our mobile devices have become integral to our lives, often functioning as a “digital sixth sense," sensing the world around us and anticipating our personal needs. We no longer think twice about our vehicle navigation giving us real-time traffic reports and rerouting around trouble or receiving an alert when a friend is in a nearby coffee shop. This same sense has expanded from the world around us to the world inside us as we pull information from health sensors we wear, devices we use and, one day, even microcomputers implanted inside our bodies. Integrated with sophisticated analytical systems, mobile devices extend our ability to derive meaning from truly personal data and act on it. Over time, active support channels combine with more passive nudges to influence patient behaviors to integrate treatments with their life, not the other way around. Programs are contextually tailored in real-time, based on patient needs, derived from inferred and reported preferences that drive adherence, healthier choices, and better outcomes. Quantifying ourselves is not enough. Non-personal data are playing just as much of a role as personal. Data aggregators have indexed the world around us to provide both location-based demographics and the tools to transform it into real-world context. Think of it as metadata which overlays our life as we journey through our world. Like giant Venn diagrams, we create a fingerprint of behavior simply by going about our day. As I wake up in New Jersey, drop the kids at daycare, go to the gym, stop for breakfast, and then head to work, I’m already telling a lot about myself and my adherent behaviors. Over time this information proves to be a powerful tool to inform, trigger, and support my health, especially when I skip the gym, usually on days when I get six or less hours of sleep, which is also when I eat a poor lunch and snack a lot. It may sound like the future of healthcare, but the future is here. This triple-treat combination of understanding the world within us, the world around us, and the technology to connect and influence us exists today. With outcomes as the currency of the new healthcare model, we can expect to see care and support going well beyond the pill. Combined with the incentives and standards for EHR “meaningful use," it’s clear the future of healthcare is technology-enabled, BIG-data-informed, connected, consumer-empowered, social and mobile.
