Have you heard about the healthcare model referred to as "Direct Primary Care" (DPC)? DPC ensures that patients receive the primary medical care they need without billing insurance. If this sounds unbelievable, let’s take a moment to examine the facts:
Studies show that 40% of deaths from top chronic diseases are preventable through lifestyle changes. While this is a sobering statistic, it also presents a real opportunity for physicians to help patients improve their health. Behavioral design examines an individual’s learned habits and then helps to implement techniques to influence a change in those habits.
According to the CDC, chronic diseases account for seven of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. and consume 86% of the nation’s annual healthcare spending. The increasing cost and prevalence make chronic disease management one of healthcare’s most challenging priorities. Population health efforts have become critical to identifying and improving chronic disease outcomes through targeted and consistent disease management protocols. Providers have started blending risk stratification models, medical history and sometimes even social determinant data to create targeted care plans. However, if we still don’t actually understand the patient, there is a missing link.
As discussed in the 2019 article “A Framework for Increasing Trust Between Patients and the Organizations that Care for Them,” we believe there is deep opportunity for patient engagement in understanding patient hearts and minds. Where does trust begin? What are the aspects of the patient relationship that can be fine-tuned to grow and maintain this trust?
The C3LX office sits between Denver and Boulder - cities filled with a high number of athletic, fit, and healthy people. Yes, we employ a great risk pool in one of the healthiest areas of the country. Yet, we build technologies that help people who are at risk or who are already dealing with chronicity. It’s a paradox. Engaging our population is a “nice to do.” Engaging a more serious risk pool is a “must do,” yet many employers are still toying with wellness programs and engaging the already healthy portion of their population. While well-intentioned, there are some key reasons why these workplace wellness programs don’t work, with additional supporting evidence in this article from NPR:
The infusion of technology into the healthcare setting provides some unique opportunities to increase patient engagement. However, the yearning to combine human connection and technology has led to some common misconceptions and myths about patient engagement. We’re setting the record straight on a few that you may have heard:
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