The Backbone of mHealth Digital Tools: Integrating the Patient Voice - Part 1

The next blog series will focus on Integrating the Patient’s Voice while developing and maintaining an mHealth digital tool.

Over the last few years, as patients grow into more of the role of a healthcare consumer, healthcare providers and payers have been actively leveraging various healthcare digital tools to connect them (the patients) to their care. We have discussed in the past how mHealth is an important tool for improving patient engagement because so much of the technology is already consumer-facing.

However, the challenge still persists, as studies have described how three-quarters of all new digital health products have not achieved wide acceptance in the healthcare realm due to difficulty with use, inadequate support, provider-patient mismatch, inappropriate pricing, or poor relevance/distinction (ref: Black Book Q4 2017 survey of hospitals and physicians (https://www.blackbookmarketresearch.com).

Again, we need to remind ourselves that much of digital health is patient-facing. Between web portals, phone apps, SMS-based programs, the patients themselves are the key end users. Although the developer and/or provider may have grand ideas on the usability and  impact of their design and product, understanding the patient’s application is critical. Thus, developers and other stakeholders (ie. the providers)  must ensure they consult the patient voice during the creation of their digital tools. 

There are 2 critical aspects of integrating the patient voice:
1) Acting on Patient Feedback
2) Undergoing a Clinical Trial (We will discuss the value and importance of peer-reviewed publications of mHealth digital tools in a future blog)

The comprehensive feedback process is often overlooked. The feedback loop can often be cumbersome and time-consuming when not properly thought out. The process needs to be well thought out and simple to provide. But let’s face it, there is no perfect solution; and integrating this feature may be daunting. However, what is even more scary --- is continuing to provide services through a digital health tool without knowing the feedback of the end-user’s experience.

So, how do you effectively integrate the patients’ voice through their feedback? Stay Tuned!

Upcoming Blogs in this series:
- How can you effectively collect patient feedback within your digital tool?
- Feedback has been obtained! Now what?
- The importance of clinical trials for mHealth digital tools: Formalizing the Patients’ Voice
- Peer-Reviewed Evidence: Why all the HYPE is actually in the SCIENCE!