Anyone who’s googled an unfamiliar symptom knows that health education is a priority—and it’s growing in importance. Consumers are researching health conditions more often. In fact, 62% of smartphone users report they have used their device to gather health-related information—more than online banking (57%), job searches (42%), or accessing schoolwork or educational content (30%).1
Consequently, providers are delivering information digitally—including health education—to improve outcomes. For example, 56% of U.S. physicians said they have discussed a diagnosis- or treatment-related app or digital program with a patient in the past year.2
So where does your company fit in?
Health IT companies like yours are in a perfect position to combine data and delivery with essential health education in a single package, resulting in a sellable value proposition to your clients. But what does that health education need to be?
- First, it needs to be baked into the application, so patients or clinicians don’t need to go somewhere else for it. A streamlined, efficient workflow is essential.
- Second, the education needs to be user tested and well-written with a focus on patient understanding.
- Finally, it needs to be trustworthy. We’ve learned during COVID-19 how important medically accurate, reviewed, and unbiased health information is. Moreover, the education needs to be updated on a regular basis as the science changes.
The 5 value-adds from in-application health education content
Providing health education in your applications and devices offers many benefits.
1. Your clients save production costs and effort
Developing quality health education isn’t easy. It takes time and expertise to write and review. Especially with the current level of staffing challenges, many organizations may not have writers to create the health education, clinical staff to provide the information, and testers to check it out.
This is particularly true for organizations that want to provide multimedia content, such as video and illustrations. Multimedia content requires even more expertise than written articles, such as actors, voiceover artists, and illustrators. It’s also challenging to produce well and often requires additional equipment.
2. Your clients don’t need to worry about technology and integration
Even if your client can generate the health education, how would it get integrated into an application or hardware? If you provide the education right inside your application or technology, there's no additional technical integration on the client side. And integration is often a sticking point in getting projects done. Developers are busy, with little time to worry about integrating more platforms than necessary.
Having the health education built into the application or technology also provides useful context. For example, you can use data from the application or technology to identify patients who are at risk and determine what health education they need based on that information. That way, the application or technology provides the right education for an end-to-end solution, and the patient doesn’t have to go elsewhere to hunt it down. Eliminating these roadblocks means clients get better results faster—and so do their patients.
3. Your clients don’t need to deal with multiple vendors
Sure, it’s possible for your clients to get health education from other sources. But dealing with multiple vendors is challenging and time-consuming. Adding more vendors and resources usually doesn’t speed up projects—it slows them down.
And there’s still the integration issue. If your clients are integrating multiple technologies and education sources, it’s challenging to fit all the pieces together.
4. Your clients can trust the health education content
Your clients are not only too busy to generate their own health education, they’re also too busy to make sure it’s accurate. Quality, trustworthy health education means your clients won’t have to medically validate each piece.
Instead, your clients can focus on the job they do best, knowing they can trust you to provide the in-application health education they and their patients need. That trust helps strengthen your relationship.
5. Your clients are poised for the future
As healthcare turns to digital services like telehealth—50% of physicians are using telehealth already—in-application health education means that the education is already prepped and ready for digital vendors, providing a seamless transition between applications and education.3 By building health education into your application, you can have analytics and reporting solutions ready to go that not only justify the value of your product, but also help your clients take part in this digital transformation.
Healthwise is a HITRUST partner that has structured content that's flexible to support a variety of solutions and applications. Please contact us today to discuss how we can power the best health education content within your application.
1. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/04/01/chapter-two-usage-and-attitudes-toward-smartphones/
2. https://arkenea.com/healthcare-statistics/
3. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nearly-half-physicians-using-telehealth-just-18-2018