Zealous for Wellness: The Ongoing Quest for Standard Measures

The previous articles in this series showed how payers, providers, and digital health companies try to prove that they’re helping to create healthier patients. Sara Shanti, a partner specializing in health care at law firm Sheppard Mullin, says that organizations in the wellness space are searching for strong algorithms. But they also want to ensure that technology leads to, and clearly reflects, improved and worthwhile outcomes. This is not likely to emerge for some time. But this final article looks at how some organizations are filling the gap. Rigor at a Weight Loss Clinic Dr. Brett Osborn, author of the book Get Serious, is a cynic regarding most wellness measures, particularly those offered by apps. Vital signs are hard for wearables to measure accurately, and popular measures such as the number of steps you take each day don’t clearly correlate to ultimate patient health. But Osborn’s main point is that health measures such as blood pressure are multi-variable, depending on a mix of activities and personal demographic traits. Furthermore, activities depend on each other. For instance, an improvement in your mood might lead you to exercise more. “You would need to track 50,000 people to establish clear effects for most interventions,” he says. Osborn’s clinic offers four health supplements: only the ones that have measurable effects. The clinic suggests that some patients use a continuous blood glucose monitor, because it’s im...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: AI/Machine Learning Ambulatory Analytics/Big Data Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Arcadia Behavior Change behavioral health BPCI Brett Osborn Clinical Source Type: blogs