Lessons from HLTH 2021: “Patients are not a set of point problems”
In October, members of our leadership team attended the HLTH conference in Boston with over 6,000 other senior healthcare leaders to talk about the most pressing issues facing the industry today. The overwhelming consensus from HLTH — besides the elation at finally returning to some form of normalcy in many parts of the country — is that healthcare is in the midst of a massive transformation.
The pandemic accelerated many waves of change across healthcare. For instance, the massive adoption of telemedicine proved that the industry could respond quickly with new digital capabilities; however, these offerings are often disparate and disconnected.
“Patients are not a set of point problems,” remarked David Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark. “How do you navigate 20 apps?” wondered Verily CEO Vivan Lee, MD. “When do point solutions break the system?” asked Sidecar CEO, Patrick Quigley. Tyto Care CEO Dedi Gilad commented, “We need to bring a full stack solution.” They aren’t wrong.
Annual funding to digital health companies surpassed $20 billion for the first time ever in 2021 across 541 deals — a 45% increase from 2020. And over the past 10 years, the amount of funding going into this space has grown nearly 2,000%, while the number of deals have grown over 480%.
To date, most successful entrants have focused on specific pain points to gain quick traction and growth -– diabetes, revenue cycle, behavioral health, and more. For example, Twin Health CEO Jahangir Mohammed presented peer-reviewed evidence on the reversal of diabetes with its digital solution while noting they are expanding into Chronic Metabolic Disease more broadly. But the result is the creation of an abundance of virtual/telehealth solutions, wearable devices, data analytics solutions, AI/ML technologies, and apps — lots and lots of apps. In fact, a recent IQVIA study reports there are now more than 350,000 digital health apps, but very few are well integrated.
While these technologies are improving care and experience in pockets, the experience for both patient and clinician is becoming wildly disjointed.
To address this situation, many new solutions deploy human navigators to help the consumer engage with their own care, coordinate across providers, and coach patients through their care journey. Many at HLTH noted that the role of the navigator is most valuable for more complex patients, but they also stressed the need for more effective workflow technologies.
The exponential growth of apps has further fragmented the EMR landscape for physician practices and health systems across the country. Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., M.P.P., national coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, highlighted the regulatory framework that will force EMR vendors to safely accelerate data sharing across technology vendors, providers, and insurers. But many have expressed impatience at the pace of implementation while acknowledging we could see some real breakthroughs over the next two years.
Many panelists referenced their digital experiences in retail, financial services, and travel to illustrate how today’s technology creates more seamless experiences. Such consumer apps don’t require duplicative data entry — but that’s far from the case with today’s multi-provider healthcare journey.
This perspective leads us to conclude that the term “digital front door” is incomplete. The ‘front door’ is just one milepost on a long journey, even multiple journeys, for every consumer. We need to think about every touchpoint across the entire care journey — from pre-care to post-care, and ongoing wellness and education. And, when we finally accomplish this lofty goal of connecting all of the dots, healthcare organizations will garner the kind of trust, reliance, and loyalty that rival the likes of Amazon.
Imagine what this future state could look like: a more seamless patient care journey; a single app that connects to all your devices and responds to voice commands; a healthcare journey that begins with a care plan personalized to you and your circumstances; and smart scheduling with easier access to physicians and other care partners.
It’s a beautiful picture. It used to seem far away, but the industry is much closer to delivering that proactive, personalized, and interactive healthcare experience than ever before. It’s not just the massive funding, either. Industry leaders at healthcare organizations are taking the first, real steps towards transformation by re-orienting their focus on the patient as a healthcare consumer.
At Tendo, this is the goal: to create a seamless experience throughout the care journey. Lofty? Absolutely — but achievable with modern technology and the will to make a change.
