"How might we reduce pricing uncertainty for health insurance providers? How might we reduce health care costs for individuals and small businesses?"
Updated HMW
We adjusted our HMW to reflect our dual problem - dual solution product.
"How might we incentivize improved wellness?"
Let's be more specific
How might we empower users to take control of their medical data and help them improve their health?
How might we encourage users to improve their health?
How might we encourage users to improve their health?
"How might we encourage non-group insured individuals to improve their health and help insurance companies save on their customer costs?"
Let's pivot
Samantha
What if we? Standardize pertinent history forms: 1) Past Medical History 2) Surgery 3) Medication
Incentivize patients to fill out these forms by giving them "points" or cash value they can use at a store through an insurance company or employer. Nudges used on our connected app (like Duolingo) to remind patient of the percentage left to fill out on the form (i.e. Points available to earn if they fill out more information). Value-the more information the patient includes, the better the "story" a physician or insurance company has about the history of the patient which helps with proper treatment and preventative care. Based on information given in forms, top 3-5 medical issues are identified and patient is given ideas to help close the gap between their blood pressure/BMI etc and the healthy/normal level. I.e. If BMI is high, nudge patient to take x amount of steps with pedometer, or use a fitbit to increase activity to get weight down. These activities are also associated with points for progress towards goals. Patient also gets points when visiting areas for a checkup (checkpoint): ie. blood pressure, etc (CVS, Wallgreens). We can do research on check points to see what is reasonable/ how often patients can recheck their progress if it is unreasonable to go to an MD for these tests.
Megan
How might we provide wellness incentives for individuals? Large companies provide these incentives for their employees, but what about individuals?
"With the nation entrenched in an obesity epidemic and millions of Americans suffering from chronic diseases, a host of companies around the country are offering employee wellness programs that reward workers when they take steps toward a healthier lifestyle. For the corporations, these programs can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in health care costs. For employees, participating in a wellness program reduces health insurance premiums, saves money on medical costs and can even get you points to redeem for merchandise."
Christine
What if instead of full medical records we did a system that tracks prescriptions
That was a common theme I saw in my interviews
Medication list was most important for knowing patients history
And often times the patient doesn't understand their medication and take the wrong dose or at the wrong time
Research results --> http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/apps/my-medications.page
Susanna
We had a "wicked problem" but upon investigation it seems many many solutions have already been created. And they seem great! So now our question is "why haven't these solutions been adopted?" I haven't looked hard at the competitor analysis to find the answer, but from my interviewing a common theme was "it just didn't don on me to look for a solution"
So maybe "how might we make patients more aware of medical record resources available to them?"
If that sounds boring, we should a. Consult with Sara (recommended no matter what) or B. Fully converge on Joes suggestion of targeting insurers
Abhijeeth
In today's digital age, the educated populace can easily explore and migrate looking for better opportunities. With the ubiquitous availability of the internet, this technically savvy generation is used to easily gathering and assessing information at their fingertips. But when it comes to accessing their own health information, there are certain challenges.
As families and new college graduates in the US move around in search of jobs or better opportunities, its hard for them to keep track of their medical information. It is not convenient for them to remember and take copies of their medical records as they switch insurances, jobs and places. They only recognize of this difficulty while visiting their new doctor and are unable to remember their previous test results, last shots or change in dosage of medicine etc;. While they retroactively try to collect this information from their previous doctors & hospitals they encounter a cumbersome process which includes fees, release forms and privacy constraints etc;.
Our idea is meant to simplify the access to ones own medical records, where they can access, update or transfer records anytime at their convenience. We want to enable people to manage their personal health records (PHR) similar to their personal and financial informations. Currently there are solutions like Epic/Lucy/MyChartCentral which are tied to the healthcare and insurance provider, while other solutions like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault are independent but do not provide seamless transition between healthcare providers and the onus is on the user to keep it updated. By combining the best of both these solutions, we will create a framework where our application generates a standard database template which can interact with data from multiple health care providers. Thus, using our application a user can access, store and transfer one’s medical history seamlessly at his or her own convenience. We want our customers to be assured knowing they have full access to their medical records and relieve them of the burden of filling forms and filing fees.
We can further build upon this framework by developing standardized forms across healthcare providers which can be used to improve efficiency at hospitals and doctors offices by simply transferring patient details with a single barcode scan from the mobile app. No one likes to spend time filling regular questionnaire forms at a doctors office, this will help streamline the process and improve the overall experience.
What if we? Standardize pertinent history forms: 1) Past Medical History 2) Surgery 3) Medication
Incentivize patients to fill out these forms by giving them "points" or cash value they can use at a store through an insurance company or employer. Nudges used on our connected app (like Duolingo) to remind patient of the percentage left to fill out on the form (i.e. Points available to earn if they fill out more information). Value-the more information the patient includes, the better the "story" a physician or insurance company has about the history of the patient which helps with proper treatment and preventative care. Based on information given in forms, top 3-5 medical issues are identified and patient is given ideas to help close the gap between their blood pressure/BMI etc and the healthy/normal level. I.e. If BMI is high, nudge patient to take x amount of steps with pedometer, or use a fitbit to increase activity to get weight down. These activities are also associated with points for progress towards goals. Patient also gets points when visiting areas for a checkup (checkpoint): ie. blood pressure, etc (CVS, Wallgreens). We can do research on check points to see what is reasonable/ how often patients can recheck their progress if it is unreasonable to go to an MD for these tests.
Megan
How might we provide wellness incentives for individuals? Large companies provide these incentives for their employees, but what about individuals?
"With the nation entrenched in an obesity epidemic and millions of Americans suffering from chronic diseases, a host of companies around the country are offering employee wellness programs that reward workers when they take steps toward a healthier lifestyle. For the corporations, these programs can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in health care costs. For employees, participating in a wellness program reduces health insurance premiums, saves money on medical costs and can even get you points to redeem for merchandise."
Christine
What if instead of full medical records we did a system that tracks prescriptions
That was a common theme I saw in my interviews
Medication list was most important for knowing patients history
And often times the patient doesn't understand their medication and take the wrong dose or at the wrong time
Research results --> http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/apps/my-medications.page
Susanna
We had a "wicked problem" but upon investigation it seems many many solutions have already been created. And they seem great! So now our question is "why haven't these solutions been adopted?" I haven't looked hard at the competitor analysis to find the answer, but from my interviewing a common theme was "it just didn't don on me to look for a solution"
So maybe "how might we make patients more aware of medical record resources available to them?"
If that sounds boring, we should a. Consult with Sara (recommended no matter what) or B. Fully converge on Joes suggestion of targeting insurers
Abhijeeth
In today's digital age, the educated populace can easily explore and migrate looking for better opportunities. With the ubiquitous availability of the internet, this technically savvy generation is used to easily gathering and assessing information at their fingertips. But when it comes to accessing their own health information, there are certain challenges.
As families and new college graduates in the US move around in search of jobs or better opportunities, its hard for them to keep track of their medical information. It is not convenient for them to remember and take copies of their medical records as they switch insurances, jobs and places. They only recognize of this difficulty while visiting their new doctor and are unable to remember their previous test results, last shots or change in dosage of medicine etc;. While they retroactively try to collect this information from their previous doctors & hospitals they encounter a cumbersome process which includes fees, release forms and privacy constraints etc;.
Our idea is meant to simplify the access to ones own medical records, where they can access, update or transfer records anytime at their convenience. We want to enable people to manage their personal health records (PHR) similar to their personal and financial informations. Currently there are solutions like Epic/Lucy/MyChartCentral which are tied to the healthcare and insurance provider, while other solutions like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault are independent but do not provide seamless transition between healthcare providers and the onus is on the user to keep it updated. By combining the best of both these solutions, we will create a framework where our application generates a standard database template which can interact with data from multiple health care providers. Thus, using our application a user can access, store and transfer one’s medical history seamlessly at his or her own convenience. We want our customers to be assured knowing they have full access to their medical records and relieve them of the burden of filling forms and filing fees.
We can further build upon this framework by developing standardized forms across healthcare providers which can be used to improve efficiency at hospitals and doctors offices by simply transferring patient details with a single barcode scan from the mobile app. No one likes to spend time filling regular questionnaire forms at a doctors office, this will help streamline the process and improve the overall experience.
Original HMW
"How might we increase a patient's control over their medical information?"