Wearable Technology Integration: Extending the Digital Front Door to Patients' Daily Lives
In recent times, one of the big trends in healthcare is the Digital Front Door – an omnichannel, digital-first healthcare services strategy to remain accessible to the patient at every touchpoint in their medical journey, using everyday technology. The purpose of the digital front door is to improve access, better engage with patients, and improve their experience. The concept began to surface as a customer-centric response to improve care services, so the patient didn’t have to jump through traditional hoops like calling in to schedule an appointment. Until 2019, smartphones were the most common digital devices, a way to connect to the provider from virtually anywhere. But wearable technologies shift the paradigm again.
During and after the 2019 pandemic, there was a rise in the popularity of wearable medical devices, which proceeded to spike as the general sentiment around health began to shift towards preventive measures, and in getting invested in daily health practices. The wearable medical devices market in the US is now worth $73.77 billion (2023), and is projected to go up to $428.92 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 28.6%. With this rise in popularity of wearable devices, care providers have a great opportunity to change the way healthcare fundamentally works, for the better.
Through The Digital Front Door And Into Patients’ Lives
This surge in popularity of wearable devices is also a symptom of a shift in society’s attitude towards healthcare. The patient is no longer a passive customer, but an active participant in their own healthcare journey, with round-the-clock monitoring of their vitals. Healthcare providers can adapt to this change by introducing the effortless integration of a patient’s wearable data into their health records. The benefits are multidimensional:
- Health Monitoring: Wearable devices and telemedicine platforms integrated with the Digital Front Door enable continuous health monitoring, keeping patients and healthcare providers connected even outside traditional settings. This becomes especially critical for Remote Patient Monitoring systems and chronic disease care, where timely alerts and interventions can ensure the patient stays on track with their preventive care plan to live a healthier life. This has evolved beyond regular fitness trackers. In March 2022, BioIntelliSense, Inc., a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company, launched its new medical-grade BioButton Rechargeable wearable device in 2022, which enables continuous multi-parameter monitoring of over 20+ vital signs and physiologic biometrics for up to 30 days on a single charge.
- Personalized Experiences: Through AI-driven technologies, patients can receive tailored healthcare recommendations based on their real-time health data, combined with their medical history and genetic profile. This includes medication plans and dosages based on the latest research, enhancing the overall patient experience. This consequently also helps reduce healthcare costs and foster stronger patient-provider relationships.
- Empowerment and Engagement: With wearables constantly giving the patient live data on their health parameters, the patient’s involvement in their care plan improves. This encourages providers to give detailed plans and instructions, knowing the patient will stick to it with a little help from the facility’s decision support systems (DSSs) with automated alerts, and scheduling and self-check-ins for appointments. Thus, patients become proactive partners in their healthcare journey, empowering them to make informed decisions and take charge of their well-being.
This shift towards a more accessible digital front door also requires a free, secure and constant exchange of data between patients and providers. Healthcare providers must invest in easily scalable and interoperable infrastructure that is HIPAA-compliant, ensuring their patient’s sensitive data remains absolutely secure. Combined with AI-powered security against data breaches and cyber attacks, the provider ecosystem can then provide the kind of services that patients look for – intuitive, secure and efficient.
Conclusion:
With the advent of wearables and preventive care, the average American patient has promoted themselves to become active caregivers, allowing the digital front door to become a constantly open window in their lives. They work in tandem with the provider to ensure the best health outcomes and optimize associated costs. This move is the first step towards a not-so-distant future where complications and deaths due to chronic diseases could become a thing of the past.
Reveal HealthTech provides specialized engineering, clinical model, and strategy support to healthcare organizations. With extensive expertise in digital front door and health stack modernization services, we work with providers across the US and globally to help set up custom digital-first healthcare platforms to provide the best care for their patients.