Article

Digital healthcare experience

Unlocking the front door

John Squeo
SVP, Head of Provider and Healthcare Services

June 23

Insights

With value-based care delivery fulfilling the quality aspect of care delivery, equitable access to healthcare and time-sensitiveness still remains a far-reaching reform.
Digital Front Door (DFD) is just the gateway that providers have been seeking, as it helps them reduce the number of in-person visits and still ensure qualitative care.
At the end of the day, patient-centric experiences need to be at the front and center of any delivery model and DFD helps them achieve this.

With rising healthcare costs, longer waiting periods, and major changes brought about by the value-based care model, access and timely delivery of care has become a cause of major concern. In this climate, the emergence of digital front door (DFD) has opened new avenues of efficient and omnichannel care delivery. From increased patient engagement to affordable care delivery and better patient outcomes, DFD is marking a significant wave in the industry.

Expanding the Digital Front Door

The healthcare industry is at the cusp of a digital revolution with the widespread use of smart devices, remote patient monitoring (RPM), contactless payments, automated insurance, and self-scheduling appointments. Add to that, the penetration of habit trackers, earbuds, and smartphone apps already offering the necessary infrastructure, healthcare providers are poised to take advantage of DFD’s potential in renewing interconnectedness. It is now time to take the care continuum up a notch. Artificial intelligence (AI), big data, machine learning (ML), and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) can help healthcare providers unearth opportunities, boost revenue, and elevate the overall healthcare experience. Some of the key drivers of the surge in DFD investments can be attributed to the demand for better patient outreach, personalization, and optimization of healthcare costs and an assumption by patients that interactions on websites and Smartphones should be as easy at Amazon, Netflix and Facebook. In addition to all this, below are some micro-trends that are moving the needle toward DFD’s growth, in a significant fashion:

The rise of care at home

Home-based care is fast gaining traction on a global scale. Studies suggest that $265 billion worth of care services for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could shift to home by 2025. Many patients prefer home-based care due to familiarity with homely surroundings, the positive impact of being around loved ones, and reduced input costs. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a lucrative opportunity for payers, specialists, and providers. To exemplify, the Internet of medical things (IoMT) can help providers and payers with near real-time and accurate metrics into a patient’s adherence to a regimen. With these metrics collected from wearables, imaging modalities, implants, etc., physicians can monitor patients’ vitals and address follow-up consultations. From a payer’s perspective, patients can be rewarded for following treatment plans, and their premiums can be reduced to encourage loyalty and retention.

An unexpected competitor

Walmart, Amazon, and other major retailers have begun facilitating blood tests, vaccinations, and medical check-ups recently, posing a threat to traditional providers. While healthcare institutions carry the experience, they must take notes from retail health’s commitment toward addressing population health management (PHM) in a more affordable and flexible manner. Here, DFD can help bridge the gap between by empowering providers with the agility and cost-effectiveness of driving access to care delivery right to patients’ homes. By pivoting towards DFD models, they can evolve into virtual PHM hubs. As convenience, price, and proximity become the deciding factors, DFD will enable providers to conduct preventive screenings, chronic disease management (diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and cholesterol), and infusion services with greater efficiency.

Security and privacy are never a tradeoff to healthcare democratization

Where there’s interoperability, structured data governance becomes a necessity. Extensive digitalization and accelerated cloud adoption result in an enormous amount of patient and stakeholder data. Therefore, it becomes essential for healthcare providers to protect patient health data as per HIPAA, GDPR, EMA, and Health Canada regulations, avoid penalties due to non-compliance, and reassess or mitigate risks. This calls for robust and scalable data de-identifiers to carry out low-risk, high-utility data anonymization. Such solutions easily integrate into systems and provide a comprehensive user experience. With DFD, user-specific configurations and ML-based analytics are deployed to maintain the data integrity, adhere to compliance regulations, and still ensure accurate data segmentation.

A patient-centric ecosystem in the making

The future of DFD holds immense potential to enhance accessibility, care delivery, patient outcomes, and price transparency. There is an increased awareness among healthcare providers, payers, and stakeholders alike to empower individuals to take control of their health. The global health industry is earmarked for progress with value-based strategies and design-led solutions, where DFD is touted to play a game-changing role. Prioritization of data privacy, security, and interoperability can ensure its widespread and inclusive adoption in the global health landscape.