What’s the best way to use a health coach?
Can we magically meld our grocery cart and mobile tech to keep bad food from finding its way home?
How far away is real-time insurance information?
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
We’ll find out.
Those questions were delivered as patient engagement solutions by the audience MedCity ENGAGE this year. We challenged select attendees to break into teams and take on three different issues, which ranged from improving health messaging to leveraging patient data. The audience saw three presentations and voted for the one that best caught their imagination.
A team, lead by Sharecare, won the day. Their mandate was:
Individual care directives are often narrowly focused on specific prescriptive actions around healthy behaviors. There is significant opportunity to promote health and wellness by engaging innovations outside of taking medications and other health-focused activities. This workshop explores the potential activities and innovations that might be considered in care prescriptions that will foster positive patient engagement. Participants will discuss and develop a potential list of ancillary actions beyond typical prescriptive actions that will promote better interactions around health.
The best ideas do come from the grassroots. So now MedCity News’ reporters will spend the next several months, until the 2016 MedCity ENGAGE, examining these issues from the winning presentation. It’s our way of taking the ideas from the healthcare community and working harder to examine them further.
“We looked at the overall system but we really focused on the moments and situations we could improve,” Sharecare Vice President Toni Pashley told our audience back in July. “What are those ideas and innovations we could help with patient engagement.”
The ideas that Sharecare and its team of attendees raised during MedCity ENGAGE were:
- Free gym membership until you lose your first 10 pounds
- Post-diagnosis support: Case coaches help clarify and explain diagnosis
- Insurance checker: Doctors verify coverage of prescriptions before patient leaves office
- Real-time photo of grocery cart to provide healthy eating advice
- Smart shopping lists with recommendations based on diagnosis
Some of those ideas are familiar. But, thanks to the efforts of Sharecare and the MedCity ENGAGE audience, will spend more time exploring these topics and hopefully find out how they are part of the bigger healthcare solution.
You can watch presentation, inspect the deck and listen to a post-event interview with Sharecare. We’re excited to pursue these ideas.
