The Complete Guide to Wellness Software Development Why Health Portals & Apps Matter More Now Than Ever Before
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Contents
Taking a pulse on wellness trends
4
Who ignores doctors’ orders?
7
Improving patient habits with technology
11
How to create health portals, apps and software patients want to use
14
Health and wellness software kick-off plan
19
Deciding what’s next
24
The power of preventative health
It’s no secret that healthcare is a $3 trillion dollar market.1 Payers, providers and practitioners know that costs need to drop and fast. Treating patients
through the slice. Now imagine if you hadn’t taken that first bite.
86%
That’s exactly how many employers, payers and providers are viewing the
in 2010 was used by
retroactively for chronic conditions that developed after years of poor habits is costly, and often, ineffective. Habits have formed, and they can be all but impossible to shake — like not finishing a piece of pepperoni pizza halfway
capability of wellness and, more importantly, wellness technology. Wellness portals, apps and solutions have the potential to engage users at the very top of the funnel when they are most susceptible to behavioral changes that drive down costs, prevent chronic conditions and ultimately save lives.
of healthcare spending people with one or more chronic conditions 2
Taking a pulse on wellness trends
Nationwide checkup
The prognosis for wellness and prevention has much room for improvement. Medication adherence remains one noticeable symptom of the larger problem. Over 33 percent of new patient prescriptions are never filled.3 Beyond that, half of patients with chronic conditions cease taking their prescriptions 180 days after they are written, according to the National Institutes of Health.4
Medication adherence is a problem — a big one
48% of Americans take at least one prescription drug5
These low rates of patient follow-through wouldn’t be a problem if only a few were responsible for maintaining their health with medication. That’s not the case. Nearly half of all Americans, 48% to be exact, take at least one prescription drug.5 Patients who don’t adhere to their prescription regime require additional care and often hospital stays. This alone can ring up a bill of $289 billion per year, as determined by the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation, a non-profit national health policy institute in Massachusetts.6 That’s just the financial cost. There’s also the very real cost of human lives to consider, to the tune of 125,000 lives lost each year related to nonadherence.
Who ignores doctors’ orders?
Taking stock of behavioral trends
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research completed a study in 2014 exploring the people behind high rates of nonadherence. They examined health data from 16,000 patients. They found those least likely to take or fill their prescriptions were those prescribed the most expensive drugs along with those using medication to treat chronic conditions. This alone begins to explain the high financial and human costs of nonadherence.7
Curing medication nonadherence
Who follows doctors’ orders
Who ignores doctors’ orders
Patients who make more physician visits
Patients with high co-pays
Patients with 5+ medications
Patients who were recently hospitalized or visited the ER
Patients in their 60’s
Patients with multiple serious medical conditions Source: Townsend 8
The stakes are high for patients who gamble with health & wellness
Why can’t patients follow the rules? Cost, unwanted side-effects and failure to understand the benefits of medication all contribute to patients’ inability to effectively maintain their health. Patient outcomes are no longer a personal issue. Increasingly, providers are asked to shoulder the financial cost of quality patient care and at-home maintenance. Medicare will now reduce funding to acute care hospitals with excess readmissions.9
Cheating when it comes to health and wellness
Why? Readmissions point to a hospital’s failure
has much more serious consequences than
to communicate the benefits of ongoing care
sneaking a look at your opponent’s hand in a
and patients’ inability to maintain the expected
game of cards when they’re distracted. Ignoring
standards. Senior researchers believe this
the warning signs for a serious condition or
inverse financial incentive will spur providers
failing to follow a practitioner’s guidelines to
to take a more progressive role in patient
maintain health can be life-threatening.
engagement and activation.10
Improving patient habits with technology
Engaged users are healthy patients
Beginning to hold providers accountable for quality patient care points toward the increasing emphasis on wellness and preventative health. Patient activation lies at the center of this national trend.
What is patient activation and why does it matter? Patient activation is a measure researchers use to describe how involved users are in the maintenance of their health. Researchers have found a link between activated patients and the populations who engage in preventative behaviors like taking prescriptions as directed and living well. Patients with higher activation levels engage in more preventative behaviors, seek information about their health more readily and engage in self-health management — like taking their prescriptions as directed.
Empower patients. Save lives.
All the figures around preventative health come down to one simple idea. Empower patients to take a more active role in the management of their care and improve health outcomes while driving down industry costs. To do this providers, practitioners, payers and start-ups are turning to wellness technology — from apps to portals.
LEVEL 1 LEVEL 4
88%
31% In patients with hypertension, more highly activated patients are more likely to take medication as directed.10
78% 36%
Patients with higher activation levels are more likely to read about complications associated with their conditions.12
How to create health portals, apps and software patients want to use
Creating a worthwhile solution is harder than it looks
Patient activation is the problem. Solutions that help users engage in understanding and
Solution
managing their health is the answer. The battle to create technology that cuts through the noise can be a daunting one. The most common use case for an app is fleeting. It is opened. Then promptly forgotten about. Partnering with technologists, developers and strategists who understand the potential in healthcare is the key to imagining, designing and developing technology that patients care about and continue using. When designing a wellness solution, it starts with just one question.
Problem
To build or not to build?
The first question to ask yourself when considering a health or wellness solution is a simple one. Should you custom build the software new, or should you adapt a pre-existing white label solution? There are considerations of course. Do you anticipate wanting more functionality and control in the future? How large is your budget? Do you trust that the manufacturer of the white label software will remain solvent and able to provide support as long as you need it?
White label apps — saving costs or prolonging the frustration? Curious about putting a white label app or portal to work for you business? Consider your long-term
While white label solutions certainly have
strategy. There’s no question that integrating with
their drawbacks, using them to release
third-party products can reduce initial development
software within a limited time frame is a
costs. This is, of course, assuming that the solution
valid strategy. In the long-term though,
is being used exactly as it was designed. If you
the only way to avoid finding yourself at
don’t plan to change anything about the app, this
the mercy of the manufacturer is to custom
may pay off in the long-run. On the other hand,
develop your app, portal or website.
what you save initially may come back to haunt you. If custom development seems outside of Custom add-ons or adapting the app/portal as your
your budget, think about it this way: Pay now
business needs change is often difficult. The only
for exactly what you want or pay later by
thing worse than struggling through a frustrating
cobbling add-ons in an attempt to differentiate
sequence of futile development attempts or work-
a white label solution.
arounds is having your product constrain growth.
So you decided to custom-build a wellness solution. What’s next?
Custom design goes a long way, especially when you have an experienced and talented team developing high-quality work. Creating your health app from scratch will give you much greater flexibility compared to a solution composed of several off-the-shelf components.
Health and wellness software kick-off plan
Find a partner who seeks out new technologies
This will give your business the upper hand in a competitive marketplace. If your partner continually seeks to understand and implement emerging technologies, you will be able to adapt and grow your solution faster than competitors.
Explore your target audience Knowing who your core users are is pivotal to anticipating their needs as your software evolves.
Any good development partner will take you through a series of ideation exercises to determine your user personas and help you understand how these key audiences will interact with your solution and what they will gain. Knowing who your core users are is pivotal to anticipating their needs as your software evolves.
Choose a solution: mobile or web
Top 2 reasons to create a web app They’re less expensive to produce They don’t require devicespecific customization
Different variables can influence whether you
Considering current capabilities, native apps generally
decide to build a native app, responsive website,
have better offline capabilities. They are the only choice
portal or combination of the three. Web applications
if your solution requires integration with Bluetooth
are appealing to many since they translate well onto
devices. Producing a native app also makes more
a majority of devices — desktops, laptops, tablets,
sense if your solution will require a significant amount
smartphones and the web-browser-enabled cars of
of on-device storage.
the future. Historically, web applications haven’t been able to leverage the robust technical capabilities as
Maybe you don’t have to choose at all. Often, product
well as native apps. This gap is quickly closing.
road maps include a native app and web experience. A top development partner can help you maximize your spend on development and design.
Define your priority features User personas
A smaller subset of your target audience with defined behaviors and traits. To determine the user personas who will be interacting with your Selecting the features you would like your
solution, first identify the scenarios of use.
solution to launch with will help you set up a reasonable development roadmap. The best development partners go through this process with you. Feature prioritization allows you to
Who are these people? How will they interact with the application?
remain on-time and on-budget bringing your
Why do they want to interact with the application?
solution to market.
What are their goals?
Deciding what’s next
Sometimes you just have to cut the cord Tell-tale signs your relationship with your current software has run its course: A support company no longer exists or they aren’t responsive. The inability to reach users on mobile or through a web browser is another flashing red beacon to move on to something new. This is where your users are and want to be. Your solution needs to be available there too. This is a common scenario. You’ve released
Excessive customization of your white label
a white label app or web solution a year or two
solution also screams, “Time to seek out
ago. Lately, things just haven’t been functioning
a development partner.” If you have needs
as they should. How do you know whether you
greater than what a basic solution can provide,
should cut ties and begin work on a new tool or
it’s time to begin working with a team who
adapt your current solution?
can help you realize them.
Talk with an expert Ready to innovate? Contact us to learn more about the potential to build or adapt wellness technology. We’re all ears. 888-710-3307 info@mentormate.com
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References 1
9
Millenson, Michael. (2015, June 8). Health Datapalooza: A Shot of Whiskey, A “Data Hippie” And Capitalism. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelmillenson/2015/06/08/health-datapalooza-a-shotof-whiskey-a-data-hippie-and-capitalism/
The official U.S. Government site for Medicare. (2015, June 16). Linking quality to payment. http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/ linking-quality-to-payment.html?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
2
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Koeppl, Patrick & Robertson, Emily. ( 2015, June 4). The healthy choice: How behavioral factors create influential health campaigns. http://dupress.com/articles/behavior-change-communications-in-health-care/?id =us:2el:3dc:dup958:eng:behx:dcpromo
Hibbard, Judith H. 2008. Increasing patient activation to improve health and reduce costs. http://iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity%20 Files/Quality/VSRT/IC%20Meeting%20Docs/ VILC%20Patients%2010-04-11/Judith%20Hibbard2.pdf
3
11
Townsend, Angela. (2014, April 1). Ignoring doctor’s orders: Not filling new prescription is common patient habit, study shows. http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index. ssf/2014/04/ignoring_doctors_orders_not_filling_new_prescription_is_common_patient_ habit_study_shows.html
Hibbard, J. (2008). Engaging consumers to improve health and reduce costs [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from www.allhealth.org/briefingmaterials/Hibbard-1727.ppt bard2.pdf
4 Tozzi, John. (2013, March 28). ‘Take your pills’ reminders from apps and gadgets. http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-03-28/take-your-pills-remindersfrom-apps-and-gadgets 5, 6 See Tozzi. 7, 8 See Townsend.
12 See Hibbard, Increasing patient activation.