Americans have always been mobile. From the car culture of the 1950s to the continuing boom in cell phone technology, we’re always on-the-go. Only the way we make it happen changes.
Today, nearly everyone in the U.S. — 91% of the U.S. population in 2009—has a cell phone, which has become ubiquitous to everyday life. Cell phones allow us to be mobile and to improve our health, which stays with us no matter where we go.
Researchers have shown that texting simple messages, about applying sunscreen, for example, can have a positive effect on the recipient. These reminder texts put prevention messages in the palm of a health plan member's hand, ensuring, at the very least, that they take note by reading the message. Using these reminders also has the possibility of reducing the costs of delivering healthcare services.
And while in the U.S. alone there were nearly 153 billion text messages sent in December 2009, we should also look toward the future and consider moving from texting to concentrate on full-featured apps for smartphones to help us create more engagement between health programs and those who use them.
More and more of us are opting for smartphones with large screens, which allow easy use of the web and access to many types of apps, over basic cell phones (also known as feature phones) that are primarily used for voice calls and texting.
And while game apps are the big money makers, there remains a place for care management programs designed to help us improve our health. Since Apple’s App Store launched in mid-2008, consumers have downloaded an astonishing 4 billion apps. The six top app stores, including Apple’s, have more than 300,000 apps available for free or for purchase. And there are more than 10,000 health and medical-related apps for smartphones that can help users manage different aspects of their health through mobile health, or mHealth, applications.
Nevertheless, we need to bring everything together and make it convenient for the health plan member and the provider with whom information sharing is critical.
The main issue, as it so often is in healthcare, is fragmentation. While you can get an app to help you train like a Navy SEAL, count calories, and even triage acute health symptoms yourself, you must use separate mHealth applications for each.
A care management Virtual Health Coach, however, would combine the best of mHealth applications, like a do-it-yourself online symptom advisor, nurse advice line and care management program within a single, full-featured smart phone app.
We see several key activities that health plan members should be able to perform via a comprehensive, integrated mHealth platform for care management services:
- Administrative transactions let health plan members quickly find in-network physicians, urgent care facilities, pharmacies or retail clinics, and look up claims status information or personal health record information.
- Care team communications improve health plan members’ access to the healthcare team. This may include e-visits with physicians or a health plan member’s personal health coach, getting a personalized health tip or health information based on a specific question or simple reminders sent by a health coach/provider for an upcoming appointment. These activities should include sending and receiving secure messages to and texting with the care team.
- Managing health and promoting wellness can help health plan members better manage their health. Condition-specific and agnostic tools remind health plan members to take medications; present generic medication alternatives when a brand name is prescribed; send text reminders for upcoming preventive care tests; and provide the ability to track and receive wellness rewards points that can be exchanged for healthy foods in exchange for entering a variety of biometric data. Additional activities can include tracking weight, caloric intake, exercise and biometric results; preventive care reminders via texting; targeted health tips and incentive reminders; medication adherence strategies; a nurse advice; and self-care recommendations.
Admittedly, putting this myriad information in one place, and making it easy to access and understand is a formidable task. Even so, with advances in software development and user interface design, we can make it happen.
So while a Virtual Health Coach is, well, still virtual, we must continue to work to bring best, most compelling mHealth apps together in one place for health plan members and providers to improve engagement and health, and lower healthcare costs.
Kevin Maher is Vice President of Product Marketing and Management at McKesson Health Solutions, a provider of care management services to commercial and government payers.