Consumer Technology Being Used To Promote Wellness and Prevention

Health insurers are increasingly getting into the use of smartphone apps, gaming technology and social media as tools for improving patient health.

• InformationWeek recently ran an online article about a new report from Chilmark Research.
• The health IT analytical firm examined more than 40 “pioneering programs” where health plans employ consumer technology.
• Though growing, this aspect of health IT usage remains “very much in the early-innovator adoption stage.”
• The steady movement from fee-for-service insurance models to basing provider payment amounts to a greater extent on health outcomes makes patient engagement in wellness and prevention all the more important.

Smartphones, online games and social networks have become prevalent in people’s lives.  Think Facebook, Farmville and Apple’s App Store.  It’s natural to explore how these innovations can help improve health and wellness.

• Fifteen social games have launched to help insurance policyholders improve their diets, achieve healthier habits and manage their recovery.
• Ten initiatives concentrate on managing chronic diseases.  Seven social media tools relate to exercise and diet.
• Some mobile phone applications enable people to monitor blood sugar levels and better control their diabetes.
• Some of the programs examined combine social media with gaming.  That can make the user engagement more fulfilling and, thus, potentially more effective.

A recently announced program intends to spur the development of even more mobile apps relating to coronary disease management and heart risk reduction.

• The Million Hearts Risk Check Challenge will reward a mobile app that enables consumers to assess their risk of heart disease.
• The federal health IT coordinator will select the winning application developer’s creation for monitoring blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
• In turn, the winning app will be deployed in four cities, where health screening campaigns will take place.

Adopting new technology, as well as integrating social media, stands to improve patients’ health and wellness.  Health leaders are acting now to take advantage of these modern technological conveniences.  As the report’s announcement indicates, “significant improvements in consumer technologies, their growing adoption and use and the introduction of low-cost, biometric devices are making it easier for health insurers to tackle those challenges” of results-based reimbursement, expansion of health coverage to millions more people and the steady retirement of baby boomers.  The greatest threat to making real headway isn’t so much resistance to adoption by the public or insurers, but barriers the government could throw up, such as onerous rules and regulations.