During the recent Home & Hybrid Care Virtual Summit 2024, St Lukes Health shared how they have expanded virtual access to support patient care journeys over the past three plus years. It is refreshing to see how St Lukes views virtual as a big front door to their care network, how they have personalized the entrance and experience across more than a half dozen patient programs and how they have invested in an integrated data platform and tools for better care experiences.

Like other health systems, Idaho- based St Lukes Health is addressing today’s healthcare headwinds including staffing challenges, provider burnout, the consumers increased expectations for their healthcare experience, all within the regulatory and reimbursement landscape.

In September 2021, St Lukes Health launched a telehealth program to patients with one of seven low acuity conditions.  Since then, their virtual program has expanded to provide patients with immediate care access until they can schedule and see their providers, which may take up to a few months.

“Our team value is that we (virtual care) will be the quickest access to a provider”, explains Abby Losinski, MHA, Director of Telehealth at St Lukes. Abby’s group is part of the Consumer access and experience team.

St Luke Virtual & Hybrid Model

Since late 2021, St Lukes has developed needed processes and infrastructure to successfully expand their virtual program with a centralized virtual support team, virtual command center platform to address incoming patient demand and virtual care patient data integration to support care collaboration and a superior patient experience.

While many health systems launch separate virtual programs to support urgent care, mental health,  and chronic conditions, St Lukes centralized team supports many patient populations with virtual care access. They view this virtual interaction as an opportunity to begin a patient relationship.

Several patients targeted by St Lukes for their virtual care program:

• New Patients (December 2021) St Lukes promoted virtual services to welcome patients without a doctor but with an immediate need. During the virtual visit, patients can refill a prescription, get scheduling help and access care support until their appointment. Patients needing a higher level of care are quickly connected with a clinician. 

• Urgent Care (May 2022) Patients at St Lukes’ Urgent Care Centers with high wait times are offered a virtual appointment when they meet certain criteria. Patients use their mobile phones for the visit and are urged to stay nearby if point of care testing is required. This gives patients a chance to be seen when there are no available rooms. 

• Service Line Extension (January 2023) “We are an extension of any department where patients need same day access” (e.g.  primary care, urology, oncology, pediatrics) explains Losinski. “We work with the Medical Directors to build clinical guidelines so that patients are treated the same way whether they are coming in to see a specialist or meeting with our virtual clinician”.  Losinski is proud that St Lukes “can offer multi-specialty care from one centralized team”. 

• Maternity/New Pregnancy (April 2023) After learning about their pregnancy, patients often have questions and concerns. Instead of waiting for their first appointment which may take 8-10 weeks, patients can meet with a clinician virtually and set up notifications in MyChart to immediately receive information about their maternity care and growing baby. During the virtual visit, patients can get scheduling help and care can be escalated if required. 

• Home & Community Access (Sept – December 2023) St Lukes has set up “virtual hubs” enabling patients to connect virtually using digital health tools from a partnership with TytoCare. “We wanted to expand what we can treat virtually because we have new tools. If we can’t see into the ear, we can’t treat it” and the revenue is lost, Losinski explains. St Lukes now offers TytoCare Home devices (e.g. otoscope, stethoscope, throat camera, skin camera) to patients at home and TytoCare Clinic to patients at schools, libraries and workplaces, to capture data for the virtual care team decision support.

St Lukes Virtual Care Access Experience Success 

Their virtual program success is achieved through continuous focus on the patient experience. St Lukes has designed their virtual experience from the outside- in and offers patients the bridge into their health system care network.

Here are several success elements that I have noticed to deliver care continuity:

Designed Patient Experience to fit care scenario. Newly pregnant patients are set on the Maternity path, supported by the virtual team with education, testing and virtual visits until their OB appointment. Service Line Extension patients such as oncology may have access to digital tools for remote monitoring with condition education and support until their specialty appointment.

Partnered for Patient Care Coordination. St Lukes’ Consumer access & experience team has built partnerships with different service lines and settings across their network. Patients accessing virtual care at St Lukes needing more care are escalated to these clinical partners within the St Lukes network. St Lukes ensures patient care quality is maintained by using the same clinical guidelines for virtual and in- person care.

Built Integrated Patient Data & Tech Infrastructure. “St Lukes has decided that virtual care can not be this thing that lives outside of the health system”, Losinski emphasizes. St Lukes has invested to integrate and augment patient data (TytoCare devices) enabling clinicians to access information from all clinical interactions and from patients from beyond the walls to deliver better patient care and experiences.

St Lukes Virtual Care Feedback

Through marketing research, St Lukes has learned: 

Consumers: The “brand” offering virtual care services really matters. Consumers like that the doctors conducting the virtual visits work for St Lukes and live in the community and appreciate that their PCP can view their virtual visit notes.  

Patients: After participating in St Lukes’ virtual services, patients rated the experience an equivalent of 4.9 stars (out of 5). “Thank you for being there when no one else was” shares a patient.

Providers: Clinicians delivering virtual services have a strong provider experience; “appreciate the increased location and schedule flexibility”, “being in the moment for patients” and “getting to work from home”.

St Lukes Virtual Care Direction

Earlier this year, St Lukes launched eVisits, an asynchronous virtual care option. For $29/visit, patients can message a clinician about one of seven symptoms. eVisits are viewed as a virtual care “entry point which affordable and convenient for patients”.

St Lukes will continue expand virtual care access for their patients. “Currently, we are 8am-8pm but we are looking to extend our hours to 24x7” Losinski shared.

It is impressive to see how St Lukes brings patients into their care system through a larger virtual care front door, leverages care partnerships and protocols for consistent patient care quality and empowers care collaboration with integrated data and tools. St Lukes’ virtual care investments and vision enable them to effectively address staffing and consumer expectation challenges while delivering a superior patient and provider care experience.

Digital Medicine is a nationally recognized, clinically proven program revolutionizing how we treat chronic conditions combining digital tools and engagement with a dedicated care team.

Ochsner O Bar Supports Patient's Digital Health needsIn 2015, Ochsner Health launched its first Digital Medicine Program for Hypertension. Since publishing success outcome measures in The American Journal of Medicine, Ochsner’s Chief Clinical Transformation Officer Dr. Richard Milani, and his team have built on the framework to support patients with chronic conditions (e.g., Diabetes, COPD) and Maternal care. Over 30,000 patients have participated in an Ochsner Digital Medicine Program.

With the cost of chronic care, including indirect costs (productivity loss) reaching $3.7 trillion a year, Ochsner is focused on better managing chronic care through three key levers: medication management, behavioral change, and frequent data collection from home.

Milani believes that a successful Digital Medicine Program must:

• use the latest guidelines for medication management, important because ideal medications are always changing, and a certain medication may be more effective for one patient (profile) than another.
• be designed with behavioral science to impact lifestyle change, which includes everything from delivering the right type and timing for nudges to aligning patient needs with right level of high touch care support.
• leverage data captured and presented within a reasonable time so that clinicians can respond before the patient’s health becomes a problem.

Dedicated Team, Centralized Monitoring

Ochsner’s Digital Medicine programs are supported by a dedicated team of over 60 professionals, including clinicians, coaches, pharmacists, physical therapists, behavioral scientists, IT developers, technology engineers, user experience, content specialists, data scientists and advanced analytics.

Team members help patients throughout their program journey, with onboarding, educating and ongoing care support.  An important benefit of having one Digital Medicine team is that the program can be personalized to the patient’s specific needs (e.g., required monitoring devices) and supported by the same clinician and coach.

EMR Foundation  

“The technology foundation of our Digital Medicine Programs is the EMR Epic,” explains Milani.  “Our patients are given clinically validated devices approved for the program, with device data flowing into the EMR.”

Ochsner has evaluated and selected a set of devices for this program for each condition, which patients are required to use to connect into the Program. Ochsner distributes the devices and is the point of contact for any technical issues.

Patients access their Digital Medicine Program through the Epic portal My Chart (via website and patient mobile app), where they can view trends on device measures, access educational information, complete assessments, and exchange messages with the Digital Medicine Care team.

“For our clinicians, we have designed dashboards which help triage and prioritize patients based on incoming patient health data including Social Determinants of Health,” says Milani “We have set up alerts for our program care team based on selected physiological and inputted measures.  Other providers of the patient’s care can access information in Epic, including a Monthly Report.

Patient Digital Medicine Program Experience

Ochsner Digital Medicine Patient After a referral from his physician, patient Peter (not his real name) is invited through Epic to participate in Ochsner’s Hypertension Program. Participating in the program means that Peter can reduce time off from work and save time driving time for some appointments.

Peter has the option of having the device(s) and program setup information mailed to him, or if nearby, Peter can stop by Ochsner’s O Bar – a physical location that allows patients to test drive more than 100 Ochsner-approved health apps and purchase devices. There’s a technology specialist behind the counter to answer questions and give app demonstrations. (Think genius bar to support patient health technology).  

Once Peter sets up his blood pressure monitor, his measures are sent to his care team. If any measures are out of range, his care team will reach out to discuss any possible changes needed. Peter’s coach sets up personalized messages regarding lifestyle changes needed and reminders to keep him on track with taking his medication and taking his readings. Peter can communicate with his coach via SMS texting, My Chart messages or via phone.  

“We are seeing that patients prefer to communicate asynchronously with their clinicians and coaches, so we are giving them the tools to do so,” says Milani.

Digital Medicine Program Success

“We evaluate success based on a few key measures,” says Milani. “We look at outcomes and are seeing a consistent 2-3 times improvement in control rates with our program. We also look at Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and we are getting very high patient satisfaction scores of 87-90.”

Ochsner recently conducted a pilot program (beginning in June 2020 and ongoing) to investigate how digital medicine with remote patient management can improve outcomes for Medicaid patients battling chronic diseases like Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes. The results were statistically and clinically significant. Enrollment in Ochsner Digital Medicine brought nearly half of all out-of-control Hypertension patients under control at only 90 days, which was 23% more likely than usual care. Control rates continued to improve as patients remained in the program during its first 18 months. More impressively, 59% of people with poorly-controlled diabetes achieved control over their condition as part of the digital program – a rate twice as high as usual care.

Most patients achieved control of their hypertension and diabetes within 90 days of beginning the program, even those who had poor control prior to enrollment.

In addition to improving health outcomes, participation in the digital medicine program resulted in high patient satisfaction, with a net promoter score greater than 91 for Medicaid participants. This is consistent with the high patient satisfaction with digital chronic disease management programs at Ochsner among non-Medicaid patients.

“We're offering patients compassionate human care combined with the power of technology, and we’ll continue to expand these programs to help more patient populations”, Milani concludes.

Success in their words

Patients:

“My care team has been really helpful. They’ve explained things to me… offered me suggestions. I really like the fact of daily accountability. I’ve lost about 103 pounds. I feel better. I have energy that I didn’t have a year ago.”

“I know I’m sleeping better–my hair, my skin, my vision–just different things that you start to notice that we take for granted that are all tied into our blood pressure and blood sugar. I’m a living testimony that it (the program) works! I know for a fact Ochsner Digital Medicine has saved my life.”

“I feel like this is more normal. Someone’s got my back and… I will be able to use [the program] for the rest of my life.”

“The Ochsner Digital Medicine Care Team helped me by guiding me in every way possible – giving me tips on my diet and adjusting my medication on the fly. They are a good support team.”

Staff:

“I love the Ochsner Digital Medicine program. As a physician, I love having the Digital Medicine team helping me because it’s like having other coaches on the team.”  Dr. Victoria Smith

Ochsner’s Digital Medicine Program is available to employees across their health system. 

“The Ochsner Digital Medicine program is one of the most important components of healthcare for our (employees). If I can offer better benefits and possibly reduce healthcare costs, why wouldn’t I? We have had employees sign up for the hypertension and Type 2 diabetes programs and have seen many positive results in a short period of time. The program lets your employees know how much they mean to you by investing in them”, Chief of Administration, Chris Kaufmann

In October 2012, Mercy Hospital Springfield of Missouri, and two other health systems launched a Centers of Excellence program with a major retailer to provide spine care for associates and their family members covered by the company’s medical plans. When an associate chooses to receive care at a Center of Excellence, they do not pay any out-of-pocket costs. In addition, the retailer picks up the tab for travel, lodging and food for the patient and caregiver. Mercy was chosen based on three factors: ethics, quality and value. Mercy Hospital is a Stage 6 Hospital in the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM).

The following October, Mercy Hospital Springfield added another contract with the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), which includes large employers like Walmart and Lowe’s. This agreement established a Center of Excellence for knee and hip replacements.

With patients coming in from other parts of the country for various procedures, it became apparent to Mercy that patients needed some information before arriving in Springfield, Missouri. “One of the challenges that we addressed was how to effectively deliver patient education and a good patient experience when the patient is not in front of us,” explained Pam Holt, director of Patient Education and Care Management at Mercy. “We needed a way to empower remote patients with information about what will happen and what to expect during their surgery. Easing patients’ anxiety and ensuring they are comfortable is a top priority for us.”

Mercy selected EmmiEngage, a patient engagement solution which provides an interactive health information platform certified for Stage 2 Meaningful Use for Patient-Specific Education. Each patient in the Destination Program receives an email from Mercy. The email contains a unique link enabling access via the web or mobile to customized videos with simplified medical information. Patients can view the videos many times and share them with friends and family. “Some of our older patients may go to their adult children’s homes because they don’t have a computer or they just want to watch the video together,” said Holt. “Plus, the back-end system allows our clinicians to know if patients have reviewed the educational information. If they have not, we’ll reach out to ensure the patient gets that prior education and is prepared for surgery.”

When traveling for care, it is particularly important for patients to prepare for discharge before hopping on the airplane. “For example, if their bedroom is upstairs, they may want to use a spare bedroom downstairs during their recovery,” Holt explains. “This information helps them think about their needs ahead of time. In fact, that’s good preparation for all of our patients, which is why we use this tool for patients who are local as well those who travel here.”

EmmiEngage provides a personalized informative overview. It is not intended to take the place of conversations between the patient and their doctor, but instead supports the relationship between them. “At Mercy, we view the solution as a technology to relay ‘general treatment’ information in an approach that suits patients’ learning style. However, we know that each patient has a unique set of circumstances that will impact their surgery and only their doctor can deliver those specific instructions,” described Holt.

Patient Related Measures

Mercy greatly values patient feedback and the responses to the program reinforces the belief that this approach is working.

“I was very impressed with the presentation!  It was most helpful.  Some things I already knew and it gave me some new ideas of what I can do to help myself.  I have a lot more questions I will be asking my doctor the next time I see him.”

“The video was very informative and insightful. I feel I am going into this procedure with a better understanding of the procedure I am facing.”

“Rather enjoyed knowing what will happen and the risk involved. Very helpful overall”.

In addition to qualitative feedback, Mercy monitors specific patient related success measures. “We know that 85% of patients are consuming educational content through their portal.  Ten percent have asked questions and 15% have contacted their doctors after reviewing the educational information. From a patient experience standpoint, 80% of patients report that the portal programs answered questions that the patient would have asked their doctor,” Holt added.

Mercy clinicians also value using technology to support patients prior to their surgery. “Patients who view a program are more prepared for their procedure and have a better understanding of their health. The benefit is two-fold: it pays off in saved clinic time and helps the patient feel more comfortable about their care,” concluded Dr. John Brown, Mercy Family and Travel Medicine.

Patient education is a key component of Meaningful Use Stage 2 but also there is growing evidence that effective patient education can impact patient outcomes as well as improve patient engagement and satisfaction. Providing these tools for patients, whether remote or local, as part of a risk sharing agreement or through traditional reimbursement, is an effective approach to patient engagement.

MGH TeleBurns TodayMassachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and parent organization Partners HealthCare have a long history in telemedicine and innovation. In 1967, Drs. Ken Bird and Jay Sanders were early pioneers in telemedicine, providing care to patients at Boston’s Logan Airport. The innovation continued in 1995 when Dr. Joe Kvedar founded the Partners Center for Connected Health (CCH). In 2001, Dr. Lee Schwamm launched the Partners TeleStroke Program, through which MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital provide 24/7 TeleStroke care to 30+ community hospitals in New England. The program also enables other US hospitals to deliver TeleStroke services. 

In 2011, MGH launched a small startup within the organization’s walls, a hospital-wide initiative called Massachusetts General Hospital TeleHealth. Building on the TeleStroke Program success and in partnership with CCH, the team is focused on achieving the goals of better, accountable, and affordable care for individual patients and populations using technology. The program enables clinicians across multiple specialties to provide high-quality, coordinated care to patients and families using familiar technology; phone, video, text, email, mobile apps and remote monitoring.

MGH has successfully embedded telehealth into patient care in several specialty areas and believes telehealth to be a mode of care delivery to help achieve the triple aim. While 21 states and the District of Columbia have laws mandating telehealth coverage under health insurance plans, Massachusetts is not among them. Given the lack of payer reimbursement, MGH is committed to paying its clinicians to provide telehealth services to patients. However, for MGH and others to expand telehealth services, universal mechanisms for funding healthcare need to align to new models of healthcare delivery.

MGH TELEHEALTH JOURNEY

“In our early days, we were willing to try most anything, and have learned a lot through trial and error and close partnership with clinicians across the institution,” says Sarah Sossong, Director of the Mass General TeleHealth program.

Building off the TeleStroke model, clinicians in Pediatrics, the Burn Center, and the Brain Tumor Program now offer emergency consults to clinicians treating patients in community hospitals.  Cardiac ICU attending physicians use a robot to virtually round on patients. Multidisciplinary teams in the MGH Cancer Center conduct virtual case conferences with community hospitals. Specialists in cardiology, dermatology, and neurology provide virtual curbside consults to MGH PCPs to facilitate timely and comprehensive medical advice. “By fostering innovation in multiple areas, our goal is to identify the ‘sweet spots’ for telehealth,” Sossong explains.

The Mass General TeleHealth program continues to implement and expand virtual offerings. “Virtual visits” replace an in-person office visit using familiar technology like video and email on a smartphone, tablet, or computer.  Since launching in spring 2013, 50+ clinicians across five divisions have conducted more than 1,200 video-enabled virtual visits with existing MGH patients in their homes and other settings.  

TelePsychiatry

MGH TelePsychiatryMass General’s Department of Psychiatry was one of the first to launch video-enabled virtual visits to patients in the home, with a focus on children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder under the clinical leadership of Dr. Janet Wozniak , associate director of the Bressler Program for Autism Spectrum Disorders at MGH and director of the Child and Adolescent Outpatient Psychiatry service. Dr. Wozniak calls virtual visits an “outstanding addition” to her clinical practice. Following autism pilot success, virtual visits rolled out with patients across 20+ disease conditions including depression, anxiety, and ADHD.  “One surprising finding has been that patients who spoke very little during office visits have become more open and able to discuss their symptoms via video,” explains Wozniak. 

TeleNeurology

MGH TeleNeurologyMass General’s Department of Neurology has been an early adopter of virtual visits for patients with benign conditions like migraines, and others for which long-distance travel can be challenging (i.e. Lou Gehrig's disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, muscle diseases, movement disorders, seizures).

Dr. Adam Cohen, TeleNeurology and Neurology’s inpatient director, comments that “virtual visits allow us to see our patients from every corner of the state.  The ease of virtual visits offers huge benefits to our patients who no longer have to trek into Boston and also for our patients who have difficulty traveling. Virtual visits also make it easier to check-in with our patients, often for just a few minutes.”

TeleCardiology

MGH TeleCardiologyDr. Stephanie Moore in Mass General’s Heart Center has been pioneer of telehealth through her work in remote monitoring for Heart Failure patients with CCH. Remote monitoring has become standard practice for many heart failure patients discharged home. Dr. Moore has incorporated virtual visits into patient care to facilitate patient education by her nursing team and is exploring how virtual visits can work with other virtual tools like remote monitoring.

Dr. Ami Bhatt, a specialist in treating adult congenital heart disease, has found virtual visits enhance patient care. “My patients are busy and often live several hours away.  A quick visit to review test results ends up being costly, and a call is not enough to explain results and educate patients to be their own advocates.”  With virtual visits, Dr. Bhatt walks patients through their heart images and test results.  

TeleBurns

At the MGH Burn Center, Dr. Shawn Fagan developed a successful program providing follow-up care to patients at Boston’s Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.   The program has benefited many patients including Boston Marathon bombing survivors treated at MGH and subsequently treated at Spaulding. With Spaulding’s telemedicine nurse, the patient connects to the TeleBurns team with a virtual visit instead of a trip to MGH.

One patient shared that “staying in contact with Dr. Fagan from the convenience of Spaulding was huge. It was like talking to him face-to-face. He had the equipment to see me, make decisions and treat me.” 

MGH TELEHEALTH SUCCESS EVALUTATION

Healthcare providers at MGH and elsewhere have shown that telehealth lowers costs when compared with traditional in-office visits. There is also a significant improvement in patient access to medical expertise, convenience, and care quality through collaborative care opportunities that otherwise would not exist in specific clinical case scenarios.

In the first few years, the MGH TeleHealth team worked on building and implementing scalable technology platforms and integration with existing clinical workflows. “The past year has been focused on feasibility and adoption by patients and clinicians, and feedback from both groups has been overwhelmingly positive. As we continue to expand the program, long-term sustainability is our top priority,” says Sossong.

Patient Experience & Satisfaction:

Overall, patient feedback about the telehealth experience has been very positive. The clinical team has learned that virtual visits are most successful with patients who have frequent touch points with the healthcare system or who are geographically distant.

“The virtual visits have helped me save on gas, parking, and still achieve what we want to achieve”, shares one telehealth patient. With virtual visits, “I have my doctor in my living room, and I feel like we're a team.”

 “Our early surveys show high rates of satisfaction and willingness to pay,” Sossong adds. “While there aren’t any national benchmarks for patient satisfaction with telehealth, we have patient feedback on virtual visits around quality, privacy, ease of use of the technology, and satisfaction (i.e. CAHPS). While it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, initial patient feedback about the virtual visit experience in selected domains reflects higher satisfaction rates than in-person visits.”

Clinician and Department Experience:

Clinicians across multiple programs have also found that virtual visits allow them to stay focused on delivering patient -centered care.

Specialists providing follow-up care for patients discharged to Boston’s Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital typically take the shuttle between MGH in Boston and Spaulding.  By enabling MGH specialists to conduct virtual visits with patients at Spaulding, patients receive more timely clinical care, and specialists have additional time to see patients in clinic, instead of sitting on a shuttle.

One high-volume medical practice reported that patients receiving care through virtual visits were more likely to show up for their scheduled appointments, reducing the overall no-show rate for the department. The practice manager explains, “Like anything, it takes time to learn a new way of doing things, but we’re excited to see how virtual visits become incorporated into standard medical care as clinicians and patients become increasingly comfortable with the technology and processes”. 

FUTURE TELEHEALTH DIRECTION

The MGH TeleHealth team is developing plans to expand the program in 2015. “In the coming year, our goal for video-enabled virtual visits is to more fully integrate them into the standard practice of care by deepening adoption in existing departments and expanding to new departments. In the future, there are a number of exciting possibilities,” says Sossong.

Multiple Modalities: “While there is tremendous value in interventions using a single technology, such as video-enabled virtual visits, I’m eager to explore how we can design a seamless, convenient, patient-friendly experience by putting all the pieces together. For example, a patient being treated by a psychiatrist for depression could have a treatment plan which includes using an app for tracking mood changes throughout the day, receiving text reminders about medication or an upcoming appointment, exchanging emails with the clinician about symptoms in between visits and conducting a video-enabled virtual visit for therapy, or checking in on medication symptoms. When it’s necessary to be ‘touched’ by the healthcare team, the patient can come into the office for an in-person office visit.”

 Patient Education: “While our current work is focused on everything that goes into making the video-enabled virtual visit happen, there’s interest in exploring related educational tools for patients as well. For example, a recording of the virtual visit, or even the in-person visit, could be helpful as an educational tool for patients and families to review once settled back home. I can envision a future where we’ll discharge surgery patients with online portal access to a recording of their own clinician’s instructions for post-operative care, which could be one of a suite of tailored educational tools including condition specific videos or articles, or even seasonal tools for things like cold/flu season.”

The MGH TeleHealth team is determined to identify where telehealth can work to bring care access, convenience, and education to patients. “People bank online, shop online and Skype with family and friends online. Patients will start to expect to receive healthcare this way too,” Sossong concludes.

Geisinger has been investing in mobile technologies to engage patients and their families in their care since 2011. In my blog post last year, I shared Geisinger’s texting programs, mobile data capture and experiences with their first mobile app to support Cardiac Rehab.

Geisinger continues to explore new technologies to involve patients and to improve the patient and physician interaction.  “Mobile apps are just another way to drive patient engagement. We think we will have better adoption by patients if we use technology that they have already adopted in their lives”, explains Chanin Wendling, Director, eHealth, Geisinger Health System. “Our goals are to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.  We pursue patient engagement because of studies from folks like Hibbard & Greene 2013 and Veroff & Wennberg 2013 that show that engaged patients have better outcomes at lower costs.  We want to provide patients with tools that help them understand their condition and follow their care plans so they can stay as healthy as possible.”

Piloting Mobile App Supporting Bariatric Surgery 

Geisinger Get 2 Goal Mobile AppGeisinger began piloting their second mobile app Get~2~Goal in September, 2012 to help manage patients’ surgical weight loss expectation and provide a journal for tracking weight loss after the surgery. The Get~2~Goal app presents the patient with personalized weight management goals using her own entered data (e.g. age, weight, height). She can monitor her weight loss towards that goal and see how she is doing compared with other patients like her. 

The app was developed by Geisinger’s Obesity Institute in collaboration with Bucknell University’s computer science staff and students. 

Patients have shared positive comments including:

   “Great App! Surgery on Tuesday, so this will be a great motivator”

   “I like it. It's very helpful and lets you know whether you're on the right track or not weight wise. So far I'm doing above average. Woo hoo to us!”

The clinical sponsor for the Get~2~Goal project was Dr. Christopher Still, Director of Geisinger Obesity Institute and Medical Director for the Center for Nutrition & Weight Management. He uses the app when discussing bariatric surgery with his patients and, recommends that they download it to their mobile devices. Dr. Still has observed an improved patient/physician interaction when a patient sets realistic weight loss expectations with the guidance of the clinician. “This app allows patients and their physicians to discuss patient specific outcomes regarding gastric bypass surgery. It is important for both the patient and their physician to have real expectations and assess the risk/ benefit of the procedure.”

Building Mobile Apps Ourselves

In addition to experimenting with Cardiac Rehab and Get~2~Goal apps, Geisinger wants to expand into apps for different chronic conditions and set out to research the market. “We were disappointed with what we found. Most vendors had apps focused only on one chronic condition. Although vendors had plans to expand into other chronic conditions, we had a hard time picking a reasonable partner based on their stated direction”, Wendling explains.

Wendling feels the mobile health app market is still in the early stages. She explains that vendors are approaching her organization with a business model that just doesn’t scale. “If a vendor charges us a rate of $10+ per member per month, how do we make that work for patients with multiple conditions? We have over 75,000 patients with hypertension and 30,000+ with asthma. Although the app will not be appropriate for all of these patients, the costs add up rather quickly.”

After evaluating many mobile apps, Wendling points out that the patient experience is not thought through. She has asked vendors about how patients can personalize their app.  “I may be a patient who works night hours so why shouldn’t I be able to set the time of the reminders to fit my schedule? Also, why can’t I select the method of receiving the reminders, through email or text messages”, adds Wendling.

The final reason that Geisinger has decided to build mobile apps internally is because integration is important. “We’ve found that many solutions do not integrate with our EMR which is essential since we need to incorporate the patient information into our clinical workflow” Wendling explains. “Although it is not unusual that the early innovated apps do not integrate with the EMR, vendors do recognize that they need to get there.  So any app we purchase, we would most likely have to do the integration ourselves anyway.  We haven’t made any decisions that we will always develop our own apps.  If we see something out in the marketplace that works and we have the budget, we will go for it.  We just may need to wait a little longer until the marketplace matures.”

Mobile App Development Journey

As their first venture into internal mobile app development, Geisinger selected a simple procedure and defined key capabilities which are replicable across more complex procedures. With the new Colonoscopy mobile app scheduled to be launched next month, patients can prepare for their procedure through: 

• Education: explains what will happen during the procedure
• Shopping: lists can be created and transferred as a note to the mobile phone
• Reminders: for days before the procedure directing the patients to steps that need to be done
• Pictures: visual guides of their bowel movement during the preparation process

 “Geisinger’s colonoscopy mobile app is unique among health care related apps in that it provides a personalized experience for the patient.  From prep instructions based on scheduled appointment time, interactive ’am I ready for my procedure’ section to the ability to easily set reminders/alerts; this app takes advantage of a lot that mobile technology has to offer.  As a gastroenterologist, my hope is that this app will allow patients to feel more empowered and in control of their bowel preparation; typically the most difficult part of the colonoscopy experience. We know that with improved prep comes better outcomes and thereby, over time, lives saved. I feel that modern health care needs to embrace mobile technology as a rapidly growing and exciting tool to improve patient care”, explains Dr. Amitpal S Johal, Director of Endoscopy, Geisinger Medical Center.

“We are looking into other surgical procedures which can use this same set of capabilities. One area that we are considering is Vascular surgeries since we work closely with our Vascular department at Geisinger”, shares Wendling. 

Future Mobile Health Roadmap

As they look to the future, Geisinger is working on enhancing current mobile apps and is exploring the use of mobile to support patient care before, during and after a hospital visit.

The next version of the Get~2~Goal app is under development. Geisinger is improving the patient experience through a better user navigation, the capability for patients to enter their own weight loss goals, and the addition of recently developed calculations for other bariatric surgery outcomes (i.e. likelihood for remission of diabetes).

Geisinger is also looking into ways that mobile devices and apps can help patients pre, during and post hospital stay. They are starting with their Janet Weis Children’s Hospital which treats kids with complex conditions such as cancer, heart or neurological issues. Geisinger understands that being in the hospital is scary for the child and their family. “With mobile apps, children and their parents will be able to prepare for the surgery, use an iPad during their hospital visit to capture pain levels and then track their recovery at home”, describes Wendling.

In the future, Geisinger is planning for a personalized patient experience. “Our dream is to be tailored in our patient care.  Given the patient’s profile, s/he will have technology options and tools to gather preferences and schedules to guide the care plan. We want to use this information to also match the appropriate intervention”, Wendling concludes.