The best way to engage patients in their care is to take a personalized approach, leaders from Independence Blue Cross and Penn Medicine said during a recent panel at the BIO conference in Philadelphia, according to MobiHealthNews.
IBC and Penn have worked together to increase patients' adherence to treatment through various technology-aided means, such as text messages that remind new mothers with hypertension to check their blood pressure or the use of "smart" pill boxes that glow to remind patients to take their medication.
For payers like IBC, it makes good business sense to tailor such interventions specifically to groups or individuals, as such an approach can help them get the most return on their investment, Aaron Smith-McLallen, a lead researcher at IBC, said during the panel.
"It's easy to send 10,000 text messages--that doesn't really cost much even if only 20 percent of them [respond]--but we can't send that many pill boxes out," he said. "We're trying to understand the scalability."
Employee wellness programs also can pose a challenge when they're not designed with people's individual needs in mind, Roy Rosin, the chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine, said during the panel, according to the story.
Indeed, when it comes to using digital tools to further patient engagement, one of the best ways for researchers to ensure success is to design programs for behavior, FierceHealthIT has reported. This approach may require the use of a "trigger" to alert consumers to use a device or keep them moving, and often relies on reinforcement or rewards to encourage participation.
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