What does connected health really mean?

As the summer nears its end, I'm always excited to experience the HME News Business Summit. Liz approached me earlier this year to lead a panel on connected health and as we've worked to assemble the content, we've created a foundation to frame the discussion around, but we'd like a bit of input from providers.

We're curious what questions you have about increasing your use of technology and data collection between your devices and your business.

I'll summarize your questions and bring them to the Summit stage in Nashville, where Tim Murphy at Philips Respironics, Jim Hollingshead at ResMed and Robin Randolph at Fisher & Paykel will join us to share their thoughts on connected health.

As a consultant in home care, there are two things that seem apparent to consider about the term “connected health” and what it really means.

1. The existing niche where your company excels that could benefit from the addition of technology and data collection.

For example, excelling at patient care of a specific condition will provide details and data to use in outside relationships. Collecting empirical data and distilling it is less of a challenge than it has been in years because of integration with tools like Microsoft Power BI and DOMO. This translates to outcomes-driven examples of your successes in the home.

2. Being prepared to launch a newer, tech-based strategy still requires traditional budgeting, timelines and concept presentations.

Investing in technology can be intangible, particularly at first. It's important that you build a fully vetted project concept before pushing off to development. If you're going to take the step of increasing technology investment on a device that you already dispense, you want to be confident of what payoff can be expected for the risk. This should include a budget, a payback goal and a revenue projection.

Don't overestimate the value of buzzwords and don't be shy about your concepts. Technologies like video chat and connected devices can deliver efficiencies to the patient's continuum of care. There is also pending legislation that could increase parity in billing for clinical professionals.

Granted, these may not be your current revenue streams, but as we move to a more outcomes-based model, being able to prove success is easier than it has ever been. Using these details to confidently instruct your teams is a valuable tool to navigate a changing market like home care.

I'm curious to hear what you want to know about connected health and how it might affect your business.

Send me an email (ryan@labtactical.com) or tweet a question with the hashtag #hmesummit and we'll be sure to take it under consideration when preparing to discuss the subject with leads from Respironics, ResMed and Fisher & Paykel.

Still need to register? Go to www.hmesummit.com for more information.