Imagine this: You’re the CIO of a large health system attending a monthly leadership meeting, and first on the agenda, the CEO announces a goal of measuring the impact of your health system’s value-based care (VBC) initiatives across the enterprise.
As the head of digital innovation, all eyes turn to you to recommend VBC software to support this directive. You have three months to develop a strategy.
You probably don’t have to imagine this scenario; you’ve likely already been there and done that with digital patient engagement or any number of emerging areas in healthcare aimed at lowering costs and improving outcomes.
While starting with a Google or Bing search makes sense, the exercise yields only a list of companies that mention value-based care in their offerings, with little to no information about their capabilities or fit for your health system.
Pros of a digital health marketplace
What if there were a trusted source where you could review value-based care software vendor profiles in enough detail to compare offerings?
A digital health marketplace is exactly where a CIO like you should begin research for this project. In an ideal scenario, the marketplace is structured to go deep so that you can view the different types of VBC platforms.
Reviewing vendor profiles organized into subcategories, such as VBC enablement and VBC outcomes, is an easy way to quickly eliminate vendors whose offerings don’t align with your project goals and organizational requirements.
While some digital health marketplaces offer customer reviews, which can give insight into the solutions other health systems are using, they should be taken with a grain of salt as they are often at the behest of sales and marketing.
What a CIO needs is third-party validation from a neutral source that is more reliable than testimonials found on vendor websites—even better if the platform can connect you with your peers already using the solutions you’re considering.
Limitations of a digital health marketplace
While listings will help your team narrow down the search to those vendors offering a VBC solution that potentially meets your health system’s needs, this is where the value tapers off.
The information provided is not customized to your health system’s needs. For example, patient engagement varies greatly depending on the demographics of the patient population—meaning a digital patient engagement solution that works well in large urban areas might not be as successful for an older, more rural population.
Digital health is complex and so are the solutions; the nuances can’t always be explained in the templated overview of a marketplace listing. Hospitals need digital health intelligence—experience, research, and trends are necessary to help you make the right purchasing decision.
For example, risk identification and stratification software might better solve your challenge than the risk adjustment solutions you’ve been considering for this project. Or maybe your health system’s challenge is actually a data fragmentation issue requiring a better analytics platform. How helpful would it be to have an industry expert or peer to guide you?
- Value-Based Care Enablement Platforms
- Population Health Management Software
- Population Health and Risk Analysis Software
What’s the solution? Community
There’s no vendor in the world who doesn’t claim top-notch customer service and implementation support. Finding a safe space to ask for the good, the bad, and the ugly from your peers is a must when evaluating vendors. You need to hear it all, and not just from the health systems vendors give for references.
While a robust digital health marketplace is a great starting point for determining your VBC strategy, you also need a partner who understands the nuances of transitioning away from a fee-for-service model and the critical role technology plays in advancing VBC and population health.
This is the power of a digital health community.
At Panda, we combine the best aspects of a digital health marketplace with our in-depth industry expertise and connections to a network of health system leaders who share similar goals.
Whether it’s value-based care software or a new patient engagement solution, the Panda community is here for you. Schedule a discovery call to discuss how we can help you make the right digital health purchase for your health system.
