The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 2 (Apr 2015) | Page 23

Delivering Coordinated Care Through mHealth Programs

Delivering Coordinated Care
Through mHealth Programs
By Tim Davis, CEO and Founder, Exco
InTouch
I recently saw an interesting quote from
Bruce Hellman, CEO of uMotif, regarding healthcare in the UK: “Most chronic
health patients only spend around 3
hours being cared for by clinicians for
every 8,700 hours they spend caring for
themselves” - i.e. only around 0.03% of
their time in front of a health care professional. The statistic itself isn’t surprising,
but when laid out in such straight-forward
terms we can see this quote has two very
clear implications. Firstly, it is now clear
that healthcare doesn’t happen at the doctor’s office; what we do every day impacts
our lives and health far more powerfully
than we think. Secondly, we can now
see that digital health solutions have the
opportunity to make a huge impact on
supporting condition management.
It is widely recognised that non-adherence
to treatment regimes, especially by those
suffering from chronic conditions, has a
major impact on overall population health.
Patients incur the risk of less-effective
therapies and greater likelihood of hospital stays, whilst health services suffer the
effects of poor outcomes, wasted healthcare expenditure and the draining downstream impact of poor control.
The pharmaceutical industry itself faces
challenges associated with lower prescription sales and less evidence demonstrating a drug’s efficacy profile.1 Patient
engagement and patient empowerment
go hand-in-hand in with health management programmes and are vital in
improving adherence and compliance to
treatment regimes. The engagement of
patients in their own care plans empowers them to make better choices and take
an active role in managing their condition, essentially becoming a fully responsible member of the healthcare team.
Today patients are increasingly learning
everything they can about healthcare
options, the obstacles to good care and
the steps they can take to get the best
treatments possible. The internet is
driving this paradigm shift, with 72%

of users saying they looked online for
health information in 2012.2 In response
to patients’ increased desire to manage
their own conditions, many pharmaceutical companies are looking to go
‘beyond the pill’ with a strategic move
towards more intelligent pharmaceuticals that focus on patient outcomes once
medicines have been commercialised. As
a result, there is a growing need for solutions that embrace this market trend and
stimulate enhanced engagement between
patients and healthcare providers.
Mobile technology is increasingly
being used as a means of communicating directly with patients across broad
demographics and multiple locations in
healthcare programmes. The familiarity
and universal nature of mobile devices
and the ability to select the right tool
according to the patient population
makes the technology perfectly positioned to integrate into global markets.
The use of mobile technology in healthcare programmes is no longer seen as a
far-off distant dream, a curio or a fad;
vendors are actively searching for opportunities to incorporate mobile solutions
into their health programs.
A mobile technology-based digital health
program can bring together multiple
elements onto one, easily recognizable
platform. These can include tools which
enable the support and monitoring of
patients outside of doctors’ surgeries;
tools which help and empower patients
(and their caregivers) to take better care
of their condition; and platforms that
help patients feel involved, wanted and
adherent to their therapy regimes by providing information to patients, including
educational and motivational content at
the right time and in the right way, such
as personalized coaching and real-time
information about their disease and
treatment via their mobile phones or
other web-enabled devices.
Finally, a mobile-based platform can also
include tools to capture patients’ data
when paired with medical devices via
Bluetooth (e.g. glucometers, blood pressure monitors, etc.) using digital tech-

nology to securely collect, transmit and
review patients’ clinical data.
This holistic approach reaps huge benefits for the pharmaceutical industry.
Improved health outcomes not only
mean a better a quality of life for patients,
they also relieve burden of