“For the first time really we’re discovering physicians are expressing much more openness and willingness to consider information about their patients coming from DIY [do-it-yourself] devices.”
This quote by Ceci Connolly, leader of PwC’s Health Research Institute, was spoken back in 2015, long before most of us could imagine the changes 2020 would bring to the healthcare marketplace. In addition to DIY devices, mobile apps and consumer medical devices allow for monitoring of vital signs, analysis of blood and urine, tracking medication adherence and more.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical technology has evolved quickly with the spotlight now shining on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), remote patient monitoring (RPM), mobile health (mHealth), and telehealth services. Many new, innovative technologies have successfully found their place within the marketplace during the pandemic. However, to ensure post-pandemic success, you’ll need to start thinking about ways to keep your technology ahead of the curve, keeping abreast of changing policies and advances and adapting your technology (quickly) to evolve with the marketplace.
1. Demonstrate your device’s accessibility and affordability.
RPM and mobile medical surveillance applications make monitoring accessible 24-7-365, keeping the lines of communication between patients and providers open for even healthy individuals and patients undergoing treatment alike. Find ways to add remote capabilities, such as Bluetooth and mobile application compatibility to your existing device. By enhancing and improving remote monitoring, you’ll be able to demonstrate cost savings to payers by decreasing hospital and office visits via remote monitoring.
2. Find ways to streamline provider workflows.
Mountains of paperwork often flood the desks of providers – insurance claims, patient charts, and lab results to name a few. Devices and technologies that can eliminate paperwork and back-and-forth communications via a HIPAA-compliant method will be able to demonstrate efficiency and time-saving techniques to payers and providers alike.
3. Build for future updates.
The best way to keep your technology ahead of the curve is to build it to allow for future firmware updates (like your smartphone and watch need now). Allow users to keep their technology up to date with the latest features without requiring a full device replacement. By increasing the longevity of your device through the rapidly changing technology scene, increased value will be demonstrated to both payers and providers alike, setting your device apart from the rest.
4. Work towards automation.
Automated process ensures critical resources aren’t weighed down by menial tasks. These include not just the provider, but support teams, administrative staff, and even payers. Think about new ways you can automate processes across the entire payer and provider system, then add this feature to your next iteration or update.
5. Monitor policy changes.
Historically, changes to healthcare policy have moved relatively slow. However, with so many innovations and changing needs over the past year, policies are likely to start changing at a more rapid pace. Upcoming shifts are likely to be focused on new technologies including mHealth, wearable devices, 3D printing, and other innovations. Staying current with proposed revisions in the pipeline can help you pivot both your technology itself and your market access tactics ahead of time, keeping you one step ahead of the changing tides.
CASE STUDY: ESTABLISHING VALUE FOR A mHEALTH APP: DEMONSTRATING LARGE ROI & COST-EFFECTIVENESS
The Challenge
Our client needed to improve an easy way for health plans to evaluate the ROI and impact of their mHealth application for implementing a prevention program aimed at reducing chronic illness (diabetes and heart disease) in underserved populations on their populations in terms of both clinical and economic endpoints. Application user and prospective user requests for ROI analysis support required expertise in healthcare claims data beyond the client’s bandwidth.
The Solution
TTi developed a user-friendly payer “playbook” that included costs, outcomes, and programmatic data. The playbook was generalizable to a wide variety of users (e.g., employers) in addition to healthcare payers, and in a short 6-week timeframe, it was distributed and implemented by the client.
The Result
As a result of TTi’s solution, the client was able to maximize market access opportunities by assisting existing and prospective users in evaluating the return on investment (ROI) and cost-effectiveness of the app and program.
“The TTi team was always very reliable, thorough, and trustworthy. They do really good quality work and value as a partner. You can trust that the work they do is going to meet your expectations. We’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of the asset they developed for us.”