The US healthcare system’s shift towards value-based care has ignited an interest in new models of virtual, connected healthcare. As defined by Chilmark Research in their latest report, Migration to Connected Health: Opportunities and Challenges in Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), ‘Connected Health’ is the application of technology to connect and extend healthcare delivery system (people, tools, facilities, and so on) in an ongoing, virtual, semi-automated manner across a patient population.
Connected Health Market Opportunity Is Clear, Yet Remains Immature
Connected health represents the next iteration of progress towards real-time management of complex, chronically ill populations. While hype surrounding the market continues to build, Chilmark’s research suggests that while the opportunity is clear, the connected health market is still very immature. As of today, several key questions remain unanswered:
-Are provider organizations really making investments in connected health technology today and if so at what rate?
– What are the primary applications of these models that carry a real value proposition in today’s reimbursement environment?
– With so many different types of solutions available, which approaches will be best suitedfor different types of organizational structures and objectives, from both clinical and business standpoints?
– Will HCO’s be able to scale up pilot projects intofull-blown programs that monitor hundreds or thousands of patients?
Connected Health Market Remains A Complex Landscape
While connected health may be a simple concept to understand, Chilmark’s research revealed a complex landscape with different technology models and business cases. Carefully dissecting the approaches taken by a wide array of industries – medical device manufacturers, enterprise software vendors, pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and several startups – this research report presents an underlying, multi-stage model for turning patient sensors into an actionable, real-time data feedback loop.
Chilmark Research spoke with over a dozen organizations from across the healthcare landscape – payers, providers, and vendors. The resulting analysis features specific examples from best-in-class vendors and delivery systems, as well as insight into how connected health is evolving in the face of shifting technology and payment landscapes.
The report uncovers a set of wide-ranging market trends, including but not limited to the commoditization of the sensor and hardware landscape, the evolution of pricing models as vendors pivot from payer-driven pilots towards enterprise-level deployments, the emergence of cloud-based platforms and their influence on virtual care, and an analysis of recent industry partnerships and acquisitions and their implications.
Insights to Building A Connected Health Model
Chilmark finds that providers have their work cut out for them, both in understanding their own needs, assets, and business objectives when it comes to RPM, and making sense of a fragmented vendor landscape. To this end, the report offers a concrete set of insights to health system executives, vendors, consultants, and others interested in building a connected health model:
– A classification schema that organizes the remote monitoring vendors into five overarching categories by technology and service offerings
– Considerations from a technology perspective, including the role of the EHR, analytics tools, and hardware sensors
– Overview of financing new virtual care programs through an emerging set of incentives and new billing codes
– Practical starting points for staff training, cost-benefit analyses, vendor selection, and other considerations for first time deployments
– Other underrated but critical components that most vendors tend to overlook, such as the importance of proper patient onboarding
“We are seeing tremendous interest from all parties in remote monitoring and connected health. The central challenge is that vendors of such solutions have had few interactions with provider organizations, as there hasn’t been a clear business case. The current migration to value-based care is finally making a clear business case for RPM adoption,” said Naveen Rao, lead analyst and author for this report.
The report is available to subscribers of the Chilmark Advisory Service or may be purchased separately. For more information, visit www.chilmarkresearch.com/reports.
