In 2014, wearables and the quantified self continued to grab headlines, from the de-emphasis of the Nike Fuel Band to the launch of Runkeeper’s Breeze activity sensor app to the backlash against attempts to feminize trackers by making them pretty. The Affordable Care Act continued to change healthcare, most notably when state insurance exchanges became live. And “big data” was a phrase on many people’s lips, with major healthcare players such as the Mayo Clinic and the MD Anderson Cancer Center partnering with IBM’s Watson to bring big data to the bedside.
What will 2015 bring? To find out, I spoke with Devin Gross, CEO, and Greg Blew, Chief Creative Officer and VP of Product Management, of Emmi Solutions, a health care technology company focused on helping providers empower people to be active in their own care. Gross and Blew identified three major themes that they believe will dominate the 2015 landscape:
Big data gets personal. Healthcare has lagged behind other industries such as banking and retail in its use of big data to predict people’s behavior and provide personalized outreach. Gross thinks this is about to change. “We look at the world as consumers,” he says, noting that data can be pulled together in service of “individuals taking greater control of their care and their self.” Wearables are certainly one piece of the growing data pool, alongside the same type of consumer data that other industries have used for years. Passive data and data from “the internet of things” are other new sources of information about individual behavior and characteristics that may also play a role in helping health care organizations understand their end users.
Engaging patients across a lifespan. To date, many interventions focus on acute medical episodes in a patient’s life, such as a diagnosis of an illness or a hospitalization for a surgical procedure. However, Gross and Blew predict that widespread changes in the health care system will require organizations to build a relationship with patients . Coinciding with this change will be the availability of a deepened pool of data and sophisticated analytics to segment populations, two factors essential to making the conversations more meaningful and valuable. “It isn’t enough to throw something generic over the fence and expect people to take action or trust that you know and understand them as a person,” says Blew. The health care organizations that come out on top will be the ones who understand this and figure out how to do it at scale. Technology will play a role but keeping the conversations personalized is key, an approach that Emmi is taking with their own product roadmap.
As to concerns about how patients will react when health care companies have information about their consumer activities or other non-health behaviors, Blew says “building trust takes time but if you do it right, the sharing of information becomes natural. The exchange of data between patients and providers is private and personal but it’s also really important to both parties to make sure they’re each getting the best out of that relationship.” And that relationship also “hinges on being able to talk to people as a person and not just a member of a population that they can talk to the exact same way.” When that happens, Gross adds, the “conversation transforms to being about the person and not about the problem.”
Increased transparency for consumers. Several factors make increased transparency a likely fact for 2015. First, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, many people are paying real attention to their health insurance purchases for the first time. Blew notes that now, “people can see what they’re paying and that means something to them.” Second, the proliferation of data sources about any one individual makes some transparency necessary to come down on the right side of the privacy line.
The three trends identified by Gross and Blew dovetail together nicely. One can imagine a rich tapestry of consumer data used to craft a personalized, technology-driven intervention that recognizes unique characteristics of an individual in a way that helps a person feel understood but within their level of comfort. The details of how that would work are to be determined, but the vision is there: The technologically engaged patient.
“If we can begin tailoring the data under the quantified self umbrella with transparency, you’re really changing the dynamics of the system,” promises Gross.
Both Gross and Blew are optimistic about the future of health technology, citing the strong foundation laid in the areas of wearable technology, big data, and health care infrastructure. Gross believes that “trying to leverage what exists rather than replacing it is key,” reminding us that the while the current system is imperfect, it’s also complex and entrenched. The key is not to jettison the current system as much as use its components in more innovative ways to improve outcomes. “People are figuring out that the data alone doesn’t change behavior,” Gross says.
What are your predictions for health technology in 2015?
Amy Bucher is a psychologist who focuses on designing programs that help people live healthier and happier lives by changing their behaviors. She is Associate Director of Behavioral Science for Wellness & Prevention, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.