The Data and Efficacy Ledger: Longitudinal Outcome
In this multi-part series, we will explore how to build scalable telehealth infrastructure for GLP-1 and weight loss programs within the weight management and obesity care vertical end market.
To wrap up the five-part series on Architecting the Metabolic Future, we focus on rounding it out highlighting the importance of data and tracking efficacy of virtual care delivery for patients.
Adherence is an integral part of any care intervention, as it ensures that patients are sticking to the plan and ensuring that they either finish their course of their medication or stay on the program to see the ultimate results.
Based on historical data points, GLP-1 adherence for year-round treatment was 33%, which has recently increased to 61% as the medication class has proliferated and become more commonplace across different demographic groups.
While this rate of improvement provides insight into how medical intervention helps solve obesity and metabolic health, it also shows the opportunity that remains for adherence rates to be improved by providing patients a sense of their progress in easy-to-digest forms at their fingertips.
This starts with engaging patients in the virtual care sphere with the right modality of engagement - this focuses on showing their trends in improving BMI, preservation of muscle, loss of fat, and improved lipid panels and biomarkers that point to overall health as is defined in medical and clinical perspectives.
Beyond that, engaging with the patients with a comprehensive reporting package of their experiences with the medication in a single, centralized ledger (which sometimes for these care interventions can be tied to rosacea in an injection site, an allergic reaction, or something like nausea due to the dosage and titration schedules) gives them a full picture of their progress and update on both positive and negative outcomes.
This all is tied together with another important aspect of the care journey and improving adherence - longitudinal care.
Solving for the Longitudinal Patient Experience in the Virtual Care Sphere
For many digital health brands and successful telehealth operations, longer patient adherence also means better retention and thus, increased patient lifetime values.
Many understand this aspect of building a business that can sustain itself and maintain strong unit economics, but few can create and deliver the longitudinal care experience that patients demand and deserve.
Recent data suggests that leading virtual care platforms see 69% of their visits coming from returning users each month vs. net new patients, which puts a further emphasis on delivering consistent, complete data profiles and continuity of care from providers for each of these patients.
Beyond more focus on retention and follow-up visits, virtual care has become more widely adopted and accepted as a core modality of care for patients, and is actually a key complement of in-person care to build towards a hybrid model.
As such, virtual care providers are expected to share data seamlessly via electronic health / medical records systems with in-person primary care providers and/or specialists for patients, and even direct-to-consumer metabolic health brands are expected to serve as a core component of integrating in-person care with the digital health delivery world that patients are engaging in more and more each year.
At the root of it all for a true and sustainable metabolic health brand is the focus on integration of patient data and longitudinal care every step of the way to ensure care delivery remains patient-centric and focuses on long-term outcomes.
How AI Health Companions Help Complete Successful Metabolic Health Brands
Beyond meeting patients where they are at and taking them where they want to be with their data and a longitudinal care experience, the proliferation of AI in healthcare has extended into the weight loss and metabolic health space, as technology companies and other telehealth brands are including more artificial intelligence workflows in parts of the user experience.
Large platforms like Amazon Health, have recently introduced highly differentiated offerings like Health AI to complement their brick-and-mortar and virtual care experiences through Amazon One Medical to deliver a new age of patient engagement through connected data, seamless experiences, and AI-based workflows.
This breaks down the historical wall of data silos and lack of transparency for the patient, helping to provide rapid access to answers, an AI-driven entry point into a successful digital care journey, and specialist-focused care once AI helps to navigate the patient through data (both inputs from the patient, as well as desired outputs and outcomes they are seeking on their metabolic health journeys).
In this new age to deliver sustainable outcomes to patients seeking weight loss solutions, and ultimately building a lasting metabolic health brand and business, embracing AI is becoming necessary and not optional.
Please reach out to our team at MD Integrations to learn how you can launch and scale your telehealth brand compliantly.