Focus on mobile health

The focus is on mobile health this week with a market report heralding coming growth and coverage from the mHealth + Telehealth World Congress held in Boston this week. Look for much more coverage from the meeting in next week’s news.

Philip Fasano, executive vice president and CIO of Kaiser Permanente (KP), shared the organization’s mobile health strategy during his session, which centers around its HealthConnect EHR system. HealthConnect “allows us to do things that many other organizations struggle to do to fully understand the patient and potentially anticipate their needs through data analytics,” he said. Beyond that, all 37 KP hospitals are paperless which “opens the door to tremendous potential to how to care for patients and allows clinicians to practice at the top of their license.”

Data analytics performed via HealthConnect has allowed for the creation of chronic disease care tools that have cut hospital ED visits by diabetics in half and cut heart patient mortality by 70 percent. “The outcomes you get are truly transformative for patients. It’s a huge opportunity, in my mind, for healthcare. We’re doing game-changing work for our patients and people who want to manage their health.”

KP looks forward to the fully engaged, empowered patient, but Fasano warned that those patients will want and need to be engaged “on their terms, not ours. Technology tools play a big role in allowing us to connect with patients in a much more proactive, seamless, service-oriented way. Once we’re down to that level, the patient/consumer defines what’s personal to them.”

KP’s mobile apps have been available for just over a year and already have been downloaded by more than 250,000 people. “They tend to use it more and more often because it’s always with them,” Fasano said. And, studies have shown that more engaged patients are healthier. “KP members say they would never join another organization that doesn’t offer Kaiser. There’s a level of service they’ve come to expect.”

Walgreens also is actively pursuing mobile health as part of the continuum of consumer engagement with impressive results, according to Abhi Dhar, the company’s chief technology officer of eCommerce.

Walgreens’ mobile strategy focuses on whatever, wherever and whenever the consumer prefers, he said. “We speak about mobile but the continuum of care stems from our retail locations.” Walgreens has 12 million visits per week to its properties whether retail or one of its websites and approximately half of that comes from a mobile device. “Mobile is irreplaceable—the customers have spoken. We accept the fact that mobile is now a true omni-channel platform for innovation. More than 40 percent of our customers use our app while in a Walgreens store. More than 70 percent of Pill Reminder app users strongly agree that the app helps them stay on track with their medications.”

The percent of online refills from mobile devices was 10 percent in 2010 and jumped up to more than 50 percent today, Dhar said. That’s more than one refill from a mobile device every second and indicates actual adherence, he said.

“Digital is a key platform for retail and healthcare innovation,” Dhar said. “We can make our brand engagement seamless and easy.” And, even fun. He cited one customer who said the refill app is “so fun I wish I had more prescriptions to fill.”

What is your organization's mobile health strategy?

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor