Connected Health: Virtual care and patient engagement

BOSTON--Healthcare is so protocol driven that some think companies shouldn’t innovate, said Michael McGarry, MBA, director of the innovations accelerator team at Ascension Health, speaking during a panel discussion at Partners HealthCare’s 10^th Annual Connected Health Symposium.

“Others says we need to blow the whole system up,” he added. Regardless of that debate, the healthcare industry is increasingly interested in engaging patients. “How do we engage patients the other 99 percent of the time when they are not with us getting direct care? How do we build a relationship with our customers? Google, Amazon and other companies know more about our customers than we do.” Healthy people don’t have much interaction with the healthcare continuum which presents a “tremendous opportunity,” McGarry said.

Innovating healthcare is not just about technology, said Eric Rock, founder and CEO of Vivify Health. “It’s about process and people and how providers are reimbursed.” Early shifts in reimbursement are creating “new hype,” he said, and venture capital is bringing money in which is “good for everybody.” Progress, he said, requires that communication tools are simple and intuitive, particularly those geared to high-risk patients.

Dmitri Talantov, MD, commercial trial leader, Janssen Healthcare Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, said his company tries to put new ideas and tools into real-time processes as soon as possible because “that’s how we learn and improve.” J&J has focused on orthopedic and cardiovascular patients and medication adherence—“big, impactful areas where all the elements, technology, psychiatry, physical therapy and more, really come together.” There’s not much future, he said, however, until there are more incentives.

When asked about the barriers to greater patient engagement, McGarry said some populations don’t want to engage. “A lot of our customers want to sit on the couch. They don’t want to be sick but they have other barriers or priorities in improving their health than simply looking at biometrics. Restaurants probably have a greater impact on outcomes than anything we do.”

McGarry said his company seeks to create relationships around its customers “on their terms, not ours.” They are also looking for ways to further engage healthy customers. “There is an insane amount of opportunity in keeping people healthy. How can we empower people to live the life they want to live?”

Rock looks forward to incorporating as much automation as possible, so that when people walk into a restaurant, sensors will recognize that they are diabetic and present them with the healthiest choices.

The technology is part of the story and “not necessarily the important part,” said Talantov. “Technology will deliver but we need to figure out how to engage patients and understand who’s in front of you. Patient engagement is really redefining the patient’s role in healthcare.”