Does your Patient Engagement strategy include Mobile?

As defined by HIMSS, Patient Engagement is, simply put, a process by which Medical Providers and patients work together to improve healthy outcomes. It almost sounds like a utopian environment where medical providers give all the care, time and professional advice as needed, and the patient willingly adopts everything as gospel. We all know this is not the case, but why? One problem may be the fact that the changing healthcare landscape is forcing everyone to evaluate the true cost of care a bit more closely. Another may be the shift that medical providers are increasingly being evaluated by metrics typically reserved for the board room, or found in an MBA program. One thing is clear; the conflicting financial incentives for healthy outcomes make it difficult for everyone to fully “buy-in” to a successful patient engagement strategy. But for the medical professional, it is critical that a successful strategy be implemented which can be widely adopted by their patients. Their financial success depends on it. One could argue that the definition of Patient Engagement is different if asked from the perspective of the Healthcare Professional or the patient. Both have the common objectives to improve the overall health of the patient, but stark differences appear when evaluating the financial motivations, incentives and costs for achieving those goals. Most Medical Professionals enter the field of medicine for the purpose of helping others, and the added benefit of earning an above average income in trade for the early sacrifices of attending medical…
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