We have talked, actually written, more and more about why healthcare providers need to connect frequently and seamlessly with healthcare consumers as those consumers use mobile more and more to manage their health and wellness. And because we are in the heart of the action with key healthcare systems and their leader, we have a true sense of this transformation becoming more urgent to the health of the healthcare system in the U. S.
Behold! McKinsey has done some homework on this too. Read on a little deeper to see some of what they have found and are willing to share. For our blog readers who sit in leadership chairs, we really encourage you to see how you can move mobile up in your food chain and how your planning analytics tools can help you do this – now.
Using Mobile to Accelerate Progress
The latest edition of McKinsey’s Consumer Health Insights survey reveals that people want and actually make use of digital solutions. Some 63 percent of respondents said they would prefer a single app that could hold all of their data (including medical records), 68 percent reported behavioral changes as a result of using devices to manage chronic conditions, and 37 percent stated an interest in implantable chips to capture health data.
At this point, however, consumer adoption rates and awareness trail some of the hype surrounding these solutions, so penetration and usage rates may take longer than expected to grow. Mobile value chain players that can identify where within the ecosystem to act, which solutions consumers really value, and how to make those solutions appealing and accessible will be the ones that reap the rewards of digital health.
Mobile Has Roles Throughout Healthcare’s Consumer Decision Journey
In the healthcare space, the consumer decision journey (CDJ) model includes the following steps: access and awareness, comparison and choice, financing and payments, consumption, wellness, and advocacy.
At last count, McKinsey identified nearly 180 companies that offer health management technologies across the CDJ and across stakeholders from consumer self-health monitoring to technologies that create provider cost and quality transparency.
The analysis shows that digital health companies offer these solutions across the decision journey to benefit both patients and healthcare enterprises. ZocDoc’s self-scheduling system, for example, facilitates patient access to healthcare, while healthcare enterprises benefit from epidemiological and treatment predictions of data companies like Predilytics.
Solutions and Data Integrators – the Critical Link Between Healthcare Consumers and Service Providers
The fact that the digital health ecosystem currently lacks integrators that can help consumers make sense of the many available solutions, means that many consumers are probably overwhelmed by the choices companies are offering across the CDJ. For this reason, it is likely that the next wave of the digital health evolution will focus on the development of a more integrated consumer experience across providers and platforms.
Another fragmentation issue involves finding ways to take all of the data generated during the CDJ and integrate it to make healthcare appealing and easy to consume for the average patient. As stated earlier, the investment community is clearly interested in the digital health play, contributing an estimated $4.2 billion in venture capital funding during 2014 alone— nearly as much as the three previous years combined.
All of this money is fueling the current rapid innovation cycles, and investors range from early-stage funders of “bleeding-edge” technologies with an eye toward fundamentally disrupting the healthcare business model to multinationals investing in mid-tier solutions and beyond.
We can get you off to a hot, fast start in 2016. We’ll give you insights into consumer mobile trends, measure progress toward a set of quantitative goals, flag shifts in your markets or financial operations and even lift your healthcare consumer experiences to a higher level.
Is that just what you needed to hear?
Come see us at www.managementinformationanalysis.com and then call us to start a neutral and friendly conversation. 512-478-3848.