Health IT Week In Review – July 14th

New survey finds overwhelming consumer support for mobile healthcare alerts

A recent survey has found overwhelming consumer support among smartphone users for mobile

healthcare alerts and interactions. In fact, 4 out of 5 smartphone users are interested in receiving health care alerts on their phone. Also, more than half of consumers with chronic health conditions believe the benefits of being able to access medical information through electronic medical records will outweigh any risk of privacy invasion. Large majorities of participants were interested in alerts that would include appointment reminders, medication reminders, healthcare offers from businesses, and provider-initiated interactions. Specifically, the survey found that:

•         76% of respondents would be interested in reminders of their appointments.

•         69% would like to receive alerts when they need to schedule appointments or take their medications.

•         71% of smartphone users are interested in healthcare offers from businesses.

•         53% are interested in provider-initiated interactions.

•         56% of patients trust their health care organizations with their personal health information.

Source: HealthIT Outcomes, 7/2/14

Research shows patient-centered data will lead to more individualized care

Patients are taking on a larger role in their healthcare, and their opinions will matter more than ever as they are used in an effort to “unify [the] story of health and healthcare,” according to an article in July’s Health Affairs.

Researchers at Duke University looked at the impact of collecting real-world data right from patients as opposed to collecting data from randomized controlled trials. The researchers not only found that the method of taking data directly from patients is growing, but they also saw that the use of electronic health records and monitoring devices is rising. In turn, the researchers think that this is going to increase the power of data collection used to help doctors better understand what leads to success in healthcare.

There is no question that the definition of patient-driven data is expanding. Now, the data can include such information as health history, lifestyle choices, self-reported quality-of-life data and information from home glucose monitoring. According to the researchers, this superior data collected directly from patients may lead to a better healthcare experience, more individualized care, and advances in research. Although better ways of collecting patient-based data are needed before significant differences can be seen, this research is a start.

Article: FierceHealthIT, 7/10/14

Full study: Health Affairs, July 2014

4 ways wearables are changing the way we view health and wellness

Many people, such as a Canadian LinkedIn author and customer experience VP, see the smartphone itself as the “killer wearable” that is giving consumers unrealistic expectations of health and wellness services. As people engage in more technologically advanced activities, such as programing their phones to sync with daily activities like physical movement and sleep, the definition of health and wellness is beginning to change. This trend is expected to continue as manufacturers invest more in close-range sensing technologies, Wi-Fi hotspots make mobile internet access more readily available, and cheaper data plans become the norm. According to Warren Anthony, LinkedIn VP Customer Experience, there are four ways in which wearables are predicted to change the typical healthcare experience.

1. The benefits that are received from sharing personal wellness data will outweigh the risk of privacy invasion.

2. Medical professionals will have technology that can better their vision and augment their view of reality. As an example, a feature of Google Glass allows surgeons to monitor a patient’s vital signs while keeping an eye on other aspects of the patients health.

3. Large manufacturers, like Apple and Google, will take over personal health care innovations. By creating new health and wellness technologies, these companies will profit off of the fact that the baby-boomer generation expects to live long and healthy lives.

4. As advanced technology is becoming a part of everyday life, health care providers will need to incorporate the digital world into their businesses. Being in touch with technology is becoming standard, and people will expect businesses to stay up to date with digital aids like smartphone apps.

Source: LinkedIn post by Warren Anthony, VP Customer Experience, FCV, 7/10/14

 

PAM survey tool highlights importance of patient engagement

We should all be familiar with Judith Hibbard, a professor who has written extensively about the importance of patient engagement. For instance, Hibbard has found that patient engagement directly impacts the success of disease management.

In order to examine which patients need a higher quality of health care, Hibbard developed a survey tool called the PAM (Patient Activation Measure) that can be used to stratify patients according to their activation level. The least activated patients would require the most “high-touch” intervention in order to improve their health outcomes. This is due to the fact that low PAM scores are correlated with “higher costs, greater emergency-department utilization and higher readmission rates”, according to research led by Hibbard. On the other hand, the higher PAM scores are correlated with patients who are able to succeed in their treatment.

The PAM survey involves patients ranking their agreement to 10-13 statements about their engagement in treatment. Licensing rights of the PAM tool are limited exclusively to Chris Delaney, the CEO of Insignia Health, Portland, Oregon, but he is optimistic that this tool will increase awareness for the need for patient engagement.

Source: Modern Healthcare, 7/5/14

Graphic of the Week:

Source: Health Intelligence Network