Digital Health’s Role in Advancing Value-Based Care
By Anuja Vaidya, Senior Editor Published: November 26, 2024
The U.S. healthcare system has been steadily shifting from a fee-for-service model to value-based care over the past two decades, where reimbursement is tied to the quality of care provided. This transition requires health systems to address the unique medical needs of diverse patient populations. Effective population health strategies are proving critical to achieving value-based care goals.
While the definition of population health has evolved, the core concept emphasizes patient engagement in managing their own health, according to Dan Shields, CEO of digital medicine at Ochsner Health. During the Payer + Provider 2024 virtual summit, Shields noted, “[Population health is] at its core getting people to do what they’re supposed to do to manage their health.” Achieving this, however, involves navigating numerous challenges, particularly in reaching the right people to encourage them to actively participate in their care.
Digital health technology has become vital to expanding care access and improving patient outcomes across various populations. Panelists at the virtual summit, including Shields, detailed how technology helps healthcare providers individualize population health efforts, facilitating progress toward value-based care. They also discussed important considerations for integrating and utilizing these technologies.
Technology-Enhanced Population Health Strategies
Digital health technology has shown particular effectiveness in boosting population health within several areas. For instance, OSF Healthcare uses technology to increase disease screening rates. Brandi Clark, vice president of digital care at OSF OnCall, explained that the health system uses an automated tool to engage patients, directing them to a personalized landing page with information about the screening, its benefits, and expected costs.
“Trying to meet the patients where they are through that digital experience and then feeding them directly into a self-scheduling workflow that then allows the patient to actually schedule that appointment at the time that’s convenient for them is so much more efficient than sending letters in snail mail, than calling patients or waiting for them to call us to schedule those appointments,” said Clark.
As a result, the health system has seen a significant increase in patient response compared to legacy tactics, she added.
Further improving outcomes for chronic disease patients who end up in ICUs is another area where digital health excels. Cutting down or preventing these ICU stays can greatly enhance population health and reduce healthcare costs. Kristina M. Kury, M.D., medical director of the Eden ICU at Sutter Health Hospital, discussed a new technology that guides treatment for sepsis and hypotension. This wireless, wearable Doppler ultrasound device helps clinicians with fluid resuscitation, a vital step in sepsis treatment.
“You can attach [the device] to somebody’s neck — no pain, easy to do [and then it] takes a couple minutes to get real-time data about true cardiovascular performance…” said Kury. “It really is a tool [to measure what] we don’t have a good way of measuring right now, and it’s relatively new.”
Ideally, digital health technology should be used on the outpatient side to keep patients with chronic diseases out of the hospital and ICU. Ochsner Health is utilizing remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies to manage type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Participating patients receive tools like wireless blood pressure cuffs and glucometers to track health metrics, with data automatically sent to their care team via a smartphone application. Patients receive guidance based on their readings and can connect with health coaches for lifestyle adjustments.
“We can monitor them,” Shields stated. “We can make decisions based on three, four or five data points a week as opposed to one or maybe two a year if people are even going to see their provider [that often] …We really think that this is the way these conditions should be treated nationally.” This continuous, real-time data empowers clinicians to make informed decisions and achieve better patient outcomes.
Addressing Technology Adoption Challenges
Despite the benefits of digital health technology, the panelists emphasized several factors influencing successful adoption. For OSF’s Clark, data management presents a significant challenge.
“A lot of times when we talk about data, we think about data as something that we collect along the way so that we can report something,” Clark explained. “But, in the case of our digital programs, we’re talking about … the front end, the patient data that we’re utilizing to drive that patient identification, to even understand which patients are appropriate for which programs to then, sort of, start the process of engaging and caring for them.”
This requires gathering data from multiple sources, standardizing varied formats, and analyzing it for insights. Clark noted that this requires collaboration between operations and data analytics teams.
Misconceptions about the populations they serve can also hinder the effectiveness of technology-based programs. The digital divide remains a social determinant of health, but Kury and Shields cautioned against making assumptions about patient willingness to use technology. Kury noted concerns that seniors might be less inclined to use digital health tools; however, Sutter teams found otherwise.
“Once you introduce it and educate them, there are no more barriers,” she said. “They love it, and they embrace it. Nothing’s going to be 100%, but the success and all the net promoter scores (NPSs) that we look at as far as satisfaction [is concerned] are through the roof, and they’re far better than for the traditional legacy-type care.”
Shields echoed Kury, citing assumptions about the Medicaid population. Data from Ochsner showed that compliance and outcomes were as high or higher in this population, with a Net Promoter Score of 91, the highest of any population.
By keeping patients central to technology deployment and accounting for diverse needs, healthcare stakeholders can optimize digital health programs and advance value-based care.
