This article was published on MedCityNews
Use these 15 screening questions to help your organization determine whether a solution is right for you.
(Digital health could range from EMR to Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solutions. For the purposes of this article, we’re focusing on patient interfacing solutions.)
If you are a health system, provider group, health plan, or a self-insured employer group, chances are you have been courted by a digital health company.
The landscape of healthcare has indeed seen an exponential outcropping of digital health companies in the past few years alone with some impressive dollars pumped into start-ups in this space.
There is no denying that there is power to be harnessed where technology, innovation and healthcare intersect. Especially, in the face of a global pandemic that has reset human and organizational behaviors and fundamentally altered consumer expectations around their interaction with the healthcare system.
Add to that, healthcare leaders have had to adapt to continued pressures of lower reimbursements, inflation, labor shortage and costs, non-traditional entrants into the ecosystem vying for market share and the continued ramp up of value-based care that has shifted risk to providers and taking on responsibility for the totality of costs, quality and patient experience.
The ongoing shifts in the market and the proverbial “ripe for change”, indeed needs to be met with action.
Combined with the promise of reduced ER visits and readmissions, better adherence to medications and treatment plans, or improved patient self-management of conditions and a host of other point solutions with digital health tools, there is potential for cost savings, improved patient experience and outcomes, with the bonus of being value differentiators for the organization. All of these have healthcare leaders wondering if they should be investing resources, time and effort into one of the many solutions in front of them.
Yet, there are cautionary tales of organizations who have implemented these solutions and have seen it fail as a costly experiment. There are also success stories of organizations that have reaped benefits from the use of these digital health solutions. What then are the key determinants of success when it comes to adopting digital health solutions?
The key lies in discerning the right solution for each organization and evaluating the fit and need, as no two organizations are similar.
The ideal way to go about this, would be to do a proactive assessment of your needs, gaps and opportunities to chart an overall digital health strategy roadmap first and then engage with companies to evaluate the different solutions.
But when you feel like an opportunity may be knocking on your door, with a potential solution for a persistent and prevalent issue you are faced with, use the 4-blocker of questions to guide you to determine whether a solution is the right fit for you.
4-blocker to determine whether a specific digital health solution is right for your organization
A.
Right-sizing for the organization:
- If the vendor had not approached you, would you still address the problem?
- Is it part of the whole? Or just a stand-alone? Siloed and piecemeal solutions may target a specific problem but lead to further fragmented systems. Ensure it integrates and fits into the broader strategy for your organization
- What are your evaluation criteria? If you were to put out a bid for the solution, what are the key requirements you would include?
- What is your desired outcome and key metrics of success? And how will you evaluate?
- What is your desired ROI?
B.
Scoping the problem:
- How big is the problem? Consider the magnitude, along with direct and indirect impacts. Ex – poorly controlled diabetes could increase utilization and total cost of care, but also cause a backlog in your ERs.
- What are the root causes driving it? Ex – is the primary issue due to access (fewer primary care sites) or due to poor self-management skills. Each leads to a completely different solution.
- Does the solution get at the root cause of the problem? Remotely monitored glucometer does little to address uncontrolled diabetes, if there are other social unmet needs
c.
Right-sizing for patients:
- Is it intuitive in a way that anyone can use it? Or is there a learning curve? This affects the adoption and ease of use.
- Does it fit into the patients’ daily routine or are there significant behavioral modifications needed? The latter is harder and requirements for that need to be evaluated more closely.
- Does the target demographic match the mode of desired solution? Would patients be receptive to the technology? Ex – Medicare patients may be more used to talking over the phone as opposed to using a new app, which may have a learning curve
- Are there other solutions that patients use today that would need to be considered? Ex – a diabetes clinic within the organization, would provide an opportunity to integrate with RPM tool for diabetes
d.
Scoping the opportunity:
- What payer type or VBC contract would it make sense to deploy the solution? Ex – risk level, payer mix
- How big is the population size and the potential for savings? Use conservative estimates for adoption rates and resultant cost savings.
- Are you factoring in all the costs that would be required to adopt the tool – direct (cost of the platform/tool), indirect (staffing capacity, training time) and emotional cost (change management)
What other questions have you found helpful in determining whether a digital health solution is a good fit for your organization?