SeamlessMD Podcast - Episode 33 - How to Evaluate Digital Patient Engagement

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Video:

In this episode of the SeamlessMD Podcast, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD, and marketing colleague, Alan Sardana, share their thoughts on "How to Evaluate Digital Patient Engagement". See the full show notes below for details.

Guest(s): Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

Episode 33 – Show notes:

[2:37] #1: Evidence – Does the digital patientengagement vendor have evidence to suggest your organization will succeed?

[3:00] Why evidence for aparticular Digital Patient Engagement platform is important to mitigate risk,and how evidence not only refers to the results that a platform has, but also towho is using the technology (i.e. partners) and their degree of similarity toyour organization;

“Is there an organizationthat is similar to mine that is actually using the technology? If so, what doesthat partner say about the technology?”

[5:38] #2: Outcomes – Does the digital patientengagement vendor have favorable outcomes?

[5:50] Why positive clinicaloutcomes are important for evaluating digital patient engagement platformsbecause it tells you the technology succeeds in multiple layers such as patientadoption & engagement (do patients actually use the platform?) and clinicalevidence (does the platform impact LOS, readmissions, ER visits, total carecost, etc.);

SeamlessMD has 20+studies conducted by independent academic medical centers showing exceptionalimprovements in clinical outcomes and costs.

[7:50] #3: Features – Does the digital patientengagement vendor have the “table stakes” features such as reminders, tasks,surveys, education, and turnkey EHR integration?

[8:00] How are thesefeatures important to the different stakeholders involved (eg. IT, surgicalteams, administration, etc.), and how dothey lead to success in outcomes?

[10:20] Why it’sdangerous for clinical teams to evaluate digital patient engagement from a feature-centricperspective ONLY and why outcomes should supersede features because it’s easyto build features, but difficult to build features intentionally that impactoutcomes;

[13:41] #4: Clinical Team Composition – Does the digitalpatient engagement vendor have clinicians building the product?

[13:55] Why havingclinicians build the digital patient engagement care plans is important forachieving success because they understand what information needs to be communicatedto the patient as well as how to best communicate the information for empoweredaction;

[14:05] “What am Igetting with this product besides the technology? Is this being developed byengineers or clinicians? To what extent does the team understand theinformation that they are trying to educate patients on?”

[15:00] Why SeamlessMD’steam is over 25% clinicians who share an intimate understanding of patient careand provider needs, which is different than some other companies who consult physiciansto create “templates”, which may or may not lead to actual results;

[17:14] #5: Accessibility – is accessibility top-of-mindfor the digital patient engagement vendor?

[17:25] How digitalpatient engagement accessibility is multi-faceted including:

• Device accessibility: can a patient access their careusing any device?
• Content accessibility: is the content delivered at a grade6 or below reading level, are there accompanied illustrations, is the language empoweringand encouraging?

[19:00] #6: Professional Services - What level of support can we expect fromthe digital patient engagement vendor?

[19:05] Why SeamlessMD providesa team to the integration and ongoing partnership to help drive patientengagement results, technical support and to share best practices from thenetwork of partners;

[20:44] How SeamlessMD hasbuilt internal playbooks for accessibility best practices, including integration,adoption, stakeholder training, and evidence analysis;

[21:43] How, in additionto viewing case studies and speaking with reference partners, you can determinethe quality of the services provided by speaking to the company reps to see ifthey are genuinely helpful in contributing to your understanding of digitalpatient engagement;

[26:40] #7: Stakeholder involvement – Who from ourorganization is needed to implement & use the product and who is necessary forthe evaluation process?

[27:00] Why feedback fromvarious stakeholders should not hold equal weight due to varied levels of involvement;

[27:25] Why it isimportant to involve all stakeholders in evaluation process since it couldheavily affect their willingness to participate after implementation;

[32:11] #8: Workflow integration – How is thedigital patient engagement used day-to-day? Who are the end users from our team?How does it integrate into both our current workflow and the workflow that weare striving towards?

[36:08] #9: Template Care Plans & Process – Doesthe digital patient engagement vendor have templates built for our area ofinterest and/or do they have a proven process to build a new care plan?

[36:25] How templates reducethe amount of time needed for implementation, why outcomes should againsupersede the number of templates since anyone can build a template (that doesn’twork), and why process is the most important criteria in trusting that thedigital patient engagement company can build for a particular use-case;

[39:36] #10: Pricing – Is the pricing clear? Is therea setup fee? Are there licensing fees? What are the ongoing operational costs?

[41:00] Why pricing forDigital Patient Engagement can be nuanced and requires context since it is not oneparticular feature such as “cloud storage” or “video chat”, and how opportunitycost is viewed differently to different stakeholders;

[47:50] #11: Security – Again, this is table-stakes,but is the digital patient engagement platform HIPAA / PHIPA compliant?

[48:50]#12: Culture Fit – Does the digitalpatient engagement vendor fit well with our organization?

[49:00]Why the vendor fit needs to be considered for an ongoing successfulpartnership;

[49:10]How the values demonstrated by one part of the company (eg. the sales team) canreflect your compatibility with the rest of the company, and why the integritydisplayed by a vendor is a good sign for a successful partnership;