Exploratory Analysis on the use of consumer wearable tech in healthcare
Company: The Advisory Board Company, Life Sciences Team | Role: Co-Lead Researcher | Year: 2023
Project: Secondary Analysis, In-Depth Interviews with Health C-Suite Executives, and Focus Group | Project Team: Ayah Abo-Basha and Amanda Okaka
Question
With the proliferation of health-related uses for consumer medical technologies like wearables and fitbits, should these consumer products be integrated into the healthcare ecosystem? And if so how could this adoption improve shifts towards value-based care? I co-led this research by considering what is it at stake for the various players in the healthcare ecosytem - from health systems, to payers, providers, as well as digital and life science companies.
Methods
Co-Led recruitment among 20+ senior C-Suite healthcare executives
Conducted rigorous industry background research note to prepare interview precis before each conversations
Co-Moderated ~15 in depth interviews with senior executives to gain an extensive understanding of consumer wearable technologies’ maturity, pain-points, and readiness to be adopted into the healthcare landscape.
Analysis
Distilled interview responses into actionable insights that could hold their weight among various members of the C-Suite
Key Insights
As a relatively new technology for healthcare management, presenting on consumer wearables required balancing various stakeholders’ excitement for their potential (largely from the tech sector) with the hesitance of other stakeholders from the healthcare ecosystem (largely from providers).
In building consensus, I relied on extensive analyses of pilot program successes for improving value-based care measures with wearables- , including impact on clinical quality outcomes, reduced hospitalizations, and increased remote patient monitoring.
Our analysis was also careful to identify these successes as futuristic considering lingering operational barriers to wide-spread implementation. In other words, my insight generation distilled the main points—including interoperability, liability, equity, privacy concerns, and workforce workload—that our clients needed to pay attention to as remote patient monitoring continues to evolve with new technologies. I would bring this ability to taper complex analyses with needed reservations while engaging audience members with key take-aways.
Deliverables
I outlined the main deliverable resulting from this months-long research. I synthesized key findings into a reporting structure that I designed with the mindset of including various members of the healthcare system as the “target audience.” I crafted the report structure with the goal of calling on health leaders to prepare for the future of consumer technology - its potential promises and downsides - in remote patient monitoring programs and at-home hospital stays.
Impact
The resulting deliverable was presented at the “Innovation and Affordability” Summit attended by hundreds of healthcare leaders including payers, health systems, digital, and life science companies.