Mobile Health Technology Connecting the Dots to Make Healthcare Easier and More Cost Effective

Transcription

1 AFH ALLIANCE_04 CONNECTING COMPETENCE FOR ehealth SERVICES Mobile Health Technology Connecting the Dots to Make Healthcare Easier and More Cost Effective Better communication, more transparency, and greater access in today s mobile environment Peter Hudson Smart phones are transforming the way in which consumers are accessing medical information and finding healthcare providers. Gone are the days when patients only sought answers to their med ical problems from their primary care doctor. At the same time, consumers have shunned the idea of flipping through traditional media like a Yellow Page directory to locate new healthcare providers. Instead, they now increasingly turn to web and smart phone technology to find healthcare information and providers, on the go. Nearly one in every three U.S. adult mobile phone subscribers now has either a smart phone or another Internet-enabled device, up from one in five less than a year earlier. Worldwide, those numbers are even more staggering. In Q4 2009, mobile phone distributors sold 53 million smart phones globally; that s up 30% from 41 million sold in the same quarter of Because of improved connection speeds, better browsers, and native applications to connect to web-based data sources, smart phones are now driving huge in- 26

2 HEALTHHAGEN creases in Web traffic. According to a new study by Quantcast, a company that tracks more than 200 billion requests for Internet content, the share of Web traffic from mobile devices increased 110% in North America over the past year, but globally, that increase rose much higher to 148% over the previous year. Medical Applications Global Outlook Analysts at Gartner, the world s leading information technology research and advisory company, say that mobile phone users will spend $6.2 billion downloading apps this year, up from $4.2 bil lion last year. The recent Gartner report also forecasts sales in mobile application stores of about $29.5 billion by the end of This is especially interesting, because statistically, 82% of those apps are still free to consumers. As more consumers use their smart phones for communication and mobile Internet searches, it s inevitable that their desire for quick access to medical information and transparency around that information will increase. As the first technology, company to build a geo-coded, mobile network of every hospital, urgent care, retail clinic, pharmacy, and physician for consumers to access, Healthagen and its itriage product has garnered tremendous interest from consumers, healthcare providers, and even the current U.S. Administration. Each of these entities recognized Healthagen as the first company to leverage this healthcare network and integrate it with live hospital data feeds like emergency department wait times on a mobile healthcare application. Given that over 50% of hospital admissions come through the emergency department, intakes from the emergency department are generally a higher margin for hospitals. Patients on the fly, who are seeking immediate care over 120 million times each year in the US alone, are making these decisions about hospital choice. This market is large, critical to the healthcare delivery system, and is dependent on real time data. The smart phone is a natural platform to address these needs. p 27

3 AFH ALLIANCE_04 CONNECTING COMPETENCE FOR ehealth SERVICES p In addition, thinking through symptoms and getting educated about conditions, finding the right specialist for any medical condition, and knowing when an urgent care or a retail clinic is appropriate for an immediate need, all represent struggles that patient s face on a daily basis. Networks need to provide content on the front end for assistance with these kinds of decisions that ultimately, patients will either make with or without the use of technol ogy and medical information. With more information available, in a real time mobile environment, patients will make better decisions on how and when to access the healthcare system on their own. Assorted Uses of Mobile Health Applications With the introduction of the iphone in 2007, Dr. Wayne Guerra and I realized that a tool had finally been built that could bring our vision of putting healthcare into the hands of patients around the world with itriage a healthcare decision application. Other med ical application development companies must be seeing the same possibilities, because a recent report by MobiHealthNews showed that healthcare related smart phone use is comprised of 70% consumers and 30% healthcare professionals. In a recent survey of itriage users, Healthagen found some surpris ing results in the way its application was being used. While the company knew that end users would be the primary patrons of its healthcare application, what it didn t expect were all the ways in which consumers chose to use it. Some of those included: Acute injury patients using the application to direct EMTs to a hospital with the shortest ER wait time. Consumers using itriage to educate themselves about symp - toms that ultimately led to ER visits that saved their life. Patients using the app to obtain quality reports on specialists to replace doctors who were not a good match for their care. 28

4 HEALTHHAGEN Nurses located remotely, using the extensive database information as a back-up for their recommendations to patients about treatment. Distant caregivers using the application to help elderly parents locate healthcare, select doctors and assess possible causes to symp toms. Mental Health Professionals accessing the application for a better understanding of their patients medical problems. Athletic trainers on the road, using itriage to help make final decisions on the most appropriate point of care for injured athletes. Paramedics using the medical application when presented with an unfamiliar symptom. These are just a few of the many ways that consumers told Healthagen why they access itriage, but the most unexpected use, came from a veterinarian who says he uses itriage in his animal ER clinic. While recognizing that the developers indeed designed itriage for human medicine, he noted that the application, also has overlap for veterinarian medicine. Why Consumers Like What Mobile Provides The language of medicine is not well understood by consumers. However, when healthcare information about a symp tom, disease or procedure is aggregated into structured fields, and then combined with multiple source information on a portable platform, healthcare consumers have ready access for their own healthcare problems, an often overlooked component of the U.S. healthcare debate how to empower consumers to become more instrumental in their own healthcare. The opportunity the itriage application and other mobile enter prise solutions have is to help restructure the consumer p 29

5 AFH ALLIANCE_04 CONNECTING COMPETENCE FOR ehealth SERVICES p healthcare experience from the puzzle they experience today, to one that makes more sense for the consumer and empowers them to take the most appropriate action. Mobile applications answer a number of consumer desires that involve healthcare, some of those offered include: A convenient way to search and find healthcare at the exact time its needed. On-the-go access to healthcare provider information that can lessen the level of anxiety in acute care situations. Offers more consumer control about healthcare decisions involving providers, and delivers answers about when and where to seek help. When patients access quality reports, they are assured that their healthcare provider selection is the best one for a given med ical problem. Where Mobile is Headed Apple Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs, revealed at the start of 2010, that consumers had downloaded three billion applications in less than 18 months a phenomenon like nothing ever seen before. With the iphone and ipod touch now available in 77 countries and Android smart phones playing catch up, this surge is not likely to taper off any time soon. As smart phone use increases, consumers will make their mobile devices the nerve center and beacon for their lives, which will open up huge opportunities in the healthcare sector. Those opportunities include connecting patients in a unique and intimate way to measure their conditions, interact with their providers, relate to others with similar conditions, keeping up with their medication regimen, and accessing their per sonal health record. All of which makes it possible to pinpoint health care needs and intervention at the exact time they are most needed. Future mobile healthcare trends in the next decade will likely 30

6 HEALTHHAGEN emerge from the need to provide more remote physician monitoring of patients, additional patient communication to create innovative and sustained engagement with healthcare providers, and a strong possibility that augmented reality capabilities can enhance mobile healthcare by providing real-time information about a facility through our smart phones. Mobile, with its unlimited possibilities, is a total paradigm shift; early indicators from healthcare consumers and medical providers show that mobile healthcare is here to stay. About itriage: itriage helps connect individuals with medical information and healthcare providers, so that they can make the most appropriate decisions about their own healthcare. Similarly, the application also helps healthcare providers connect with patients who need healthcare services in an innovative and person way. The free mobile application allows users to check symptoms, learn about causes and then find healthcare providers to address their medical concerns; itriage offers the only symptom-to-provider mobile pathway on today s market. Created by emergency room physicians who saw a need to put more actionable health care information into their own patient s hands; the proprietary software now has information on thousands of symptoms, diseases and medical procedures contained within its database all of which is available 24/7. itriage also provides valuable physician and facility quality reports through HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Dr. Hudson is a physician and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in healthcare-related businesses. Prior to co-founding Healthagen, Dr. Hudson has served as managing business partner and CFO of his multi-facility medical group, CEO of several healthcare-related startups, investment banking partner with EMA partners, a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, and independent consultant for healthcare-related private equity investments. Both with EMA and in his own business activities, Dr. Hudson has been involved in a variety of transactions, including restructurings, sell- and buy-side transactions, and founding and selling one of his startups to a public company in