Piloting innovation at Aetna

BOSTON—Innovation is “new, surprising and radically useful,” said Michael Palmer, chief innovation and digital officer at Aetna, speaking at the 2014 Center for Connected Health Symposium on Oct. 23. Aetna’s innovation lab is entrenched in testing new tools and digital products that meet the full range of this definition.

Aetna is devoting 70 percent of its resources to tackle the most expensive and pervasive conditions: cancer, cardiology, maternity, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal issues, Palmer said.

A number of projects and pilots are underway at the incubator—many with a promise of saving real money if brought to scale, he said.

For example, one technology designed for people going on short-time disability injected mental health professionals into conversations between patients and physicians to help determine whether the patient suffered from depression and needed additional resources. The program helped prevent patients from slipping into long-term disability, saving $2,800 per patient, he said.

In another pilot, use of a clinical decision support app called Eviti in six practices based in New York and New Jersey increased the amount of evidence-based care, preliminary findings show, according to Palmer.

A number of Aetna’s projects involve predictive modeling. One pilot involving a metabolic syndrome screening test utilized a predictive model (analyzing claims and lab data) to identify patients most at risk of a stroke. As a “silent killer,” stroke can come without warning, and this tool allows for interventions for high-risk patients. Another predictive analytics tool, Care Pal, links patients with similar histories and predicaments so they can serve as mutual support systems, Palmer said.

Aetna has seen “amazing results” with an app that includes an engaging genetics test, a lifestyle test, a personalized diet and exercise program, with personal coaching and tracking. Usually there is 2 percent engagement with weight loss programs, but this one managed to engage 60 percent of participants, according to Palmer.  Of the 1,890 identified to utilize the app, 467 participated in the pilot and 280 of those lost 15 pounds. “In year number one, we achieved our ROI,” he said, noting that cost per patient shrunk by 38 percent for the 280 patients.

“There was a lot of great testimony from the patient population and it turns out it meant a lot for medical costs, too,” he said.

Aetna also is investing heavily in virtual visits. It surveyed 2,700 of its members and found that 26 percent considered virtual visits as extremely or moderately important. “People want their doc in their pocket 24 hours a day.”

Other projects included a multipurpose device that can diagnose children with conditions like an ear infection, potentially saving parents a trip to urgent care or the emergency room. Also, an app called iTriage helps direct patients to the most appropriate acuity of care. Consumers that used the app to search for non-acute conditions used the emergency room 40 percent less often, Palmer said. The app also features cost transparency tools.

The bottom line in all this promising innovation is that “it is easy to use technologies in meaningful ways,” concluded Palmer.