Is Samsung Going to Steal Your Healthcare Customers?

Thanks to a running app, a food journal app and a social app for beer lovers, my mobile device knows more about my daily health habits than my primary care doctor does. It’s not her fault: I’m a relatively healthy person she only sees once or twice each year – and my smartphone doesn’t share with her what it knows. It’s nothing personal. As much as I love mobile technology, my smartphone apps don’t really share well with anyone. And they should – especially each other.

It’s possible that the creator of the technology that connects all the apps (or more specifically, the data from the apps) will win all the marbles. Is Samsung, then, or Apple, or Google, going to steal your healthcare customers? It’s unlikely, of course; Samsung isn’t a payer or a provider. But what about the healthcare organization that partners with Samsung, as Cigna has done for its “Coach” app? The Samsung-Cigna announcement of the app describes Coach as a “new digital health guidance system designed to help users worldwide make better health a habit.” It functions via “‘S Health,’ a Samsung platform initiative that will help users collect and integrate health information from their smartphones and new Samsung Gear devices. [It] offers easy-to-use features in a mobile dashboard to aid making health improvement an engaging part of everyday life.”

While bells and whistles don’t automatically translate into customers, there is an unmet need in the healthcare space that ought to interest even smaller organizations: meaningful integration of lifestyle data. Payers and providers would be smart to stay on top of innovations that not only intrigue but also benefit healthcare consumers. Think such innovations are luxuries? Think again: the era of accountable care is fast approaching. Payers/providers will have plenty of (new) motivations to help customers succeed in their health objectives.

To follow through with my smartphone example, what if a single app were savvy enough to know how late I stayed up tweeting and how many times I hit the snooze button on my alarm? Or to incorporate my running stats with data from the beer app and the food log? I’m interested in this kind of sophisticated feedback: “Noticed a slower pace today. Perhaps a burrito bowl isn’t the best pre-run fuel?” Or this: “Missed today’s morning run. Try achieving a beer badge when it’s not the eve of a workout?” Or: “More sleep might help you consume fewer calories.”

I’m not talking about negativity or judgment. I’m talking about links and connections. We’re human, and our memories are flawed. (It’s part of the reason, for example, that Facebook may be more informed than our doctors.) We tend to compartmentalize. It’s easy to forget how everything is related. Behaviors and outcomes. Cause and effect.

I’m serious about improving my health: exercising more, eating better. I want awareness and accountability. In addition to a brownie, I’m really craving technology that integrates my specific and personal data, increases my understanding about how my actual diet (like the aforementioned brownie), my sleep habits and those missed workouts make it harder to reach my goals.  My primary health challenges are food and exercise, but others may be more concerned about managing health conditions and diseases. Similar app/technology integration would be helpful in those instances, as well (how to time meds, monitor stress, etc.). It’s more than the ability to gather the information in one place – it’s about turning that data into helpful, real-time, customized insights.

I’m not sure any single app has these capabilities right now. For example, the partnership between Samsung and Cigna, mentioned above, doesn’t do it all. The small print warns that Coach is “for educational purposes only and intended to promote consumer health. It does not constitute medical advice and is not intended to be a substitute for proper medical care provided by a physician.” It stresses that “Galaxy S 5, S Health and related software [are] not intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease.” The WebMD “Healthy Target” service may be a bit closer. It claims to “connect the dots and give people insight” from data it collects via “wearables, wireless scales, glucose meters” and other devices. It, too, has disclaimers.

But they’re all missing something vital: direct connection with the user’s doctor and/or insurance company. Good news, payers and providers: despite technology, your expertise and services are still very much needed. You are the piece that pulls this all together. Personally, if it meant support and accountability for an actionable plan, I would be willing to offer the healthcare professionals in my life access to the data I gather (via the appropriate HIPAA waiver, of course).

Until that kind of exchange is a real possibility (and standard practice), what can you, as local and regional payers/providers, do with technology innovation in the industry? Assuming a collaboration with a gazillion-dollar, international, big-name partner isn’t an option, here are some small-scale ways you can be part of – instead of dragged behind – advances in consumer healthcare technology:

• Educate consumers about the benefits and limitations of the technology. Some of the tools require honesty and diligence by the user, for example, as well as ongoing, consistent commitment.
• Incorporate use of these technologies into your customer experience by expressing a  willingness to work with the info consumers bring to the table via apps and wearable devices. It may take some internal training, but validating the user’s efforts in the conversation and using the data (as appropriate) can build the customer relationship.
• Take a thought leadership role via content marketing about the implication of these for your insurance plan or your practice.

And finally, it’s not just knowledge and expertise from payers and providers that pulls it all together – with all this technology, we’re still after the personal touch. And there’s no “app for that.” When you remember to nurture the person-to-person relationship, patients and customers will keep turning to you no matter how many apps and devices they have.