Insights – Analytics

The path to consumer insights and engagement

April 8, 2014 by bobyurkovic

In a dynamic and highly personalized industry such as healthcare, consumer insights are vital in order to create useful experiences, tailored health management programs, and ultimately craft a more successful, profitable brand. When people speak about consumer insights, they are typically talking about the collection, analysis and deployment of data in the effort to attract and keep customers. Developing better consumer insights requires careful analysis of the features of the brand in relation to the interests and responses of the consumer. With better consumer insights, healthcare brands can understand and appreciate the wants, needs, desires, motivations and mindsets of the consumers in their targeted market in order to foresee future trends and create a more positive user experience.

The Role of Health and Profile Data

Health data is vital to the modern healthcare industry because it provides an array of useful information about the incidence of various conditions and diseases in the patient population. There are a number of trends that become more evident with the analysis of health data, which enables healthcare providers, insurance firms and other health-related enterprises to design better products and services, and better serve the needs of their patients. Profile data is highly specific, enabling organizations to assess the relationships between particular groups of consumers in order to uncover various patterns and offer support targeted to these populations. Health and profile data may include information about behaviors, biometrics, devices, claims, prescriptions and tests. Master data files for profiling are the most specific and segmented, containing demographics, ethnographic information, personal health records, socioeconomic information and other critical data.

Assessing Data for Clearer Results

In the effort to profile consumers and develop insights into their behavior, the goal should always be to attain better analytics and ultimately drive higher-quality healthcare initiatives for the marketplace. There are numerous tools for assessing data in order to develop consumer insights to create better experiences that drive engagement. Data layering tools enable decision-makers to view information about their current and prospective customers or users in a number of formats. For the healthcare industry, a planar view of layered data can enable more scrutinized assessments of data in a spatial or geographic format. These tools can ultimately enable more customized dashboards to present information to consumers, collect data from consumers, keep this information organized and secure and develop better relationships with consumers stretching into the future. The consumer data that is collected must be audited for quality and usability, first of all, but after that, there are many different options for analyzing this valuable information, which your team can discuss with your business strategy consultants. Analytical tools can enable you to perform propensity modeling to predict future consumer behaviors, cross-selling analysis to spotlight relationships between successful products and services, critical lag analysis to design custom communication campaigns and many other options.

To simplify how we look at complex data, we view it in data planes that share commonality.

Positive Consumer Experiences is a Path to Member Engagement

In order to stay on the path of member engagement, we need consumer insights to create the kind of customer experiences that inspire loyalty and strengthen your brand image. Analytics and technology are the backbone to support building profiles and gain consumer insights. By exposing more insights from consumers you serve; it will ultimately enable better relationships through more successful marketing campaigns, personalized communications and health management programs that cater to their specific wants and needs. With data about the consumer marketplace and about specific groups within that marketplace, you will be able to target on two levels and develop personalized, relevant, multichannel campaigns. And with tracking and profile buildup, you’ll have the tools to continue improving consumer understanding and offer even more personalized health programs for increased retention and a reduction in medical costs. Staying on this path is critical for success in an increasingly complex healthcare world as it simplifies the experience for consumers.

Consumer Insights: Profiling Consumers to Target Personalized Communications and Sustainable Health Programs

September 18, 2013 by bobyurkovic

The healthcare climate has changed, and consumer centricity in healthcare is now more important than ever. In order to better serve consumers, enact more personalized healthcare communication programs and develop more sustainable health programs that influence the lives of consumers for the better in the future, it is necessary for health providers and payers to leverage big data in new and innovative ways. There are huge stores of data available for healthcare industry insiders to take advantage of in order to profile consumers and ultimately better serve them through programs such as digital dashboards that are easily accessible to consumers, employers and healthcare payers.

What Kind of Data is Most Useful?

Successful healthcare consumer centricity programs take many different kinds of information into account. Healthcare payers and providers can better serve consumers with tailored communications and personalized programs by first obtaining the following types of data in a central repository:

Behaviors – Information about lifestyle choices and behaviors that pertain to diet, exercise, activity, sleep patterns and other habits can be very helpful. These may be obtained through information from various databases, surveys and other records of interactions with consumers.
Claims – All claims tell a story, and can be used to tailor more personalized experiences for and communication with consumers in the future. A well-managed electronic records database is essential here.
Rx – Tracking and measuring pharmacy metrics can be very beneficial to healthcare payers, not only because it provides an opportunity to streamline cost initiatives, but also because it provides another opportunity to see what health choices consumers are making and where they’re spending their healthcare dollars.
Biometric Devices – Since the dawn of the digital age, many advances have been made in the healthcare world, including the development of biometric devices that identify doctors and staff and gather vital information about patients. Statistics from these data records can be used to pinpoint trends, develop more customized healthcare products and services and make better predictions about healthcare outcomes.
Tests (Blood) – The records of blood tests can also be used to develop better products and services for consumers. The more information that healthcare payers and providers have about the unique populations they serve, the more personalized communications, experiences and programs they can provide.
Master Data (PHR, ethno-, techno-, socio- and demographic) – Perhaps the most useful chunk of data for profiling healthcare consumers is a master data file that includes demographics, personal health records, ethnographic information, socioeconomic information and all varieties of useful digital information about the group of consumers that a given healthcare organization serves.

What Can We Do With All This Data?

The goal of any successful consumer-profiling program should be to achieve the kind of strategic analytics that will support better health initiatives. Analytics can fuel tailored dashboards for consumers, employers and payers, which epitomize the new drive toward consumer centricity for healthcare payers. Such a dashboard provides a more convenient way for consumers to receive information from and communicate directly with healthcare payers and providers, which allows payers in particular to foster relationships with consumers that were not always possible in the past. These dashboards can also be used to gather more information about consumers in the future, and do so in a more organized, cost effective and streamlined way. In the end, the more insights a healthcare payer and/or provider can gain about the consumers they serve, the better prepared they will be to target personalized communications and develop more sustainable health programs in the future. It’s a win-win-win for the healthcare payer, the consumers who use their products and services and the employers who help provide health plans to their employees, when applicable.

Consumer Understanding and Intimacy Because Healthcare is Personal

September 11, 2013 by bobyurkovic

Describe healthcare from a personal view. Do terms such as fragmented, fractured experience, inconsistent communications, confusing, irrelevant information, and frustrating come to mind? Is healthcare a personal experience?

Questions arise from a consumer. “Don’t they know me yet? Why do I have to repeat entering the same information? What does this mean? Which one is right?”

Consumers place so much emphasis and energy on how to navigate through healthcare to the point that they hardly have time to focus on their health. Did you ever walk into a store and were overwhelmed by what you saw you forgot why you came in the first place? If health care were a collection of packaged goods in a store, we would walk out of the store.

What do consumers want from healthcare? Five basic words come to mind: Easy, consistent, coordinated, helpful, and connected. And if information and tools are required to make good decisions, they need to be relevant, useful, and personalized to me.

To address the consumer’s needs, we need four elegant solution engines and they form a consumer equation.

Consumer Insight + Customer Experience + Personalized Communications + Relevant Health Engagement

It is more than just adding four items; it is how those items are connected into an integrated consumer view of healthcare – the conduits and glue in healthcare. So, let’s choose one of the four and work our way through them. Why? It’s all about “me” in a consumer world and the “me’s” have choices in a b2c environment. Consumer centricity should drive the business for a payer as it does for CPG companies.

Health Engagement Programs and What Makes us Tick

August 21, 2013 by bobyurkovic

The shift toward consumer centricity in healthcare can be seen throughout the market, from providers to payers. The healthcare industry is in a state of transition, which is inevitable for any industry that has straddled generations of consumer, economic and societal trends. With a shift toward consumer engagement and digital communication, it is more important than ever for healthcare industry insiders to keep up with the times and develop programs that are relevant to today’s market. Health engagement programs are a big part of that. In order to develop useful and lasting health engagement programs, it is up to providers and payers to better understand what makes us tick, and provide products and services accordingly.

Health Engagement Programs: Segmentation is Essential

Healthcare providers and payers are now more focused on developing programs that drive healthier behaviors in consumers, whether they are in top shape, in need of a few healthy lifestyle adjustments, chronically ill or currently receiving treatment. Segmentation of the marketplace allows healthcare professionals to create more positive experiences for consumers from all walks of life and in all situations. This allows for a more personalized experience for the consumer, with health programs that are tailored for and marketed to different types of people based on their unique wants and needs.

What This Means for Healthcare Payers

The shift toward segmenting the healthcare market and creating more personalized experiences for patients provides a new opportunity for payers to move into the consumer health space, rather than just the health event and transaction spaces, as they have been limited to in the past. It is in everyone’s best interests for consumers to have as many tools and as much accurate information as possible in order to pursue their own good health, and payers can be a big part of this. Historically, however, consumers have not been pleased with the experiences they’ve had with the payers providing health benefit plans and services to them. Payers have not worked hard to build relationships with their customers, and thus do not differentiate themselves from one another, giving consumers little reason to switch from one payer to another. Consumer centricity for healthcare payers is essential as consumers continue to become savvier and demand more comprehensive services designed to meet their specific needs.

The Challenges in Engaging Healthcare Consumers

The fact of the matter is that many consumers are resistant to engaging with their health payers due to a number of factors, including negative past experiences and underdeveloped relationships. Even when payers try to reach out with information that can help consumers achieve healthier lives, they are faced with heavy resistance. It does not have to stay this way, though. Many payers are already beginning to embrace the shift toward healthcare consumer centricity and building the kinds of relationships that see results. There is still much that can be done to engage consumers, better understand what makes consumers tick, segment the market, provide more personalized products and offer better services overall.

The Road Ahead for Healthcare Payers

Focusing on consumer centricity in healthcare is going to become just as essential for payers as keeping costs down and increasing membership – this is how payers are going to keep their customers and attract new ones. In many ways, healthcare payers can benefit from looking at how various retailers handle their business. Many online retailers, for example, engage consumers throughout the processing and delivery steps, and update them as their packages are being shipped. The same model could be used in the claims processing lifecycle to keep consumers engaged, and not frustrated or alarmed. At the very least, healthcare payers will need to provide a more seamless and positive user experience for their members, and begin building a more optimistic relationship with consumers. Then, over time, it will be possible for health payers to design more consumer centric products, engage consumers in healthier behaviors, keep customers happy and distinguish themselves from the competition.

Embracing Big Data and Mobile Technology to Create a Better Healthcare Insurance Experience

June 12, 2013 by bobyurkovic

There are many different types of healthcare technology that have the potential to boost the bottom line for insurance companies while simultaneously improving the customer experience. Unfortunately, many health insurance companies have not yet fully utilized these technologies. Big data and mobile technology, including cloud-computing capabilities, can provide many different cost-effective, patient-centered, integrated healthcare payer solutions that both insurance companies and policyholders can appreciate. It’s time for insurance companies to embrace big data and mobile technology, if they haven’t already done so, in order to create a better healthcare insurance experience for all.

Big Data, Mobile Solutions and Health Insurance

As you may know, big data is a term that defines the large and complex sets of information that organizations are collecting in the digital age. As these sets of data grow, it becomes harder and harder to process all the data using the applications and database management software that an organization may traditionally have been utilizing. Since healthcare is the fastest growing industry in the world and is expected to grow and transform even more within the United States when Affordable Care Act provisions go into effect in 2014, health insurance companies have some of the biggest data challenges facing any organization in the 21st century. Many employers will require new healthcare payer solutions as of January 1, when the mandate requiring large employers to provide affordable health coverage to all fulltime employees goes into effect. The sets of data that health insurance companies are dealing with will only continue to grow as more people become insured and the population steadily increases, leaving a huge need for technology solutions to make this data as manageable as possible without negatively impacting revenues or damaging the customer experience.

What This Means for Healthcare Insurance Providers

Healthcare insurance technology consultants are already busy helping many of the leading insurance companies transform their technology systems so they can manage their data more efficiently and improve their customer centricity. Healthcare information consulting firms can help insurance companies embrace the kinds of technology that will help them create a better experience for their companies while improving their bottom line. The first step is deploying an electronic medical record system, which many companies have already done, but this is not nearly enough to handle the big data challenges around the corner. In order to provide accountable, cost-effective, patient-centered, integrated healthcare solutions, insurance companies must make a concerted effort to take advantage of the content they have at their fingertips and automate as many of their operations as possible to make the patient care process nearly seamless. Since this type of effort requires a strategic master plan to be successful, working with a consulting firm is advisable.

The Leading Big Data and Mobile Solutions for Healthcare

Different insurance companies may require different healthcare payer technology solutions depending on the needs of their customers and internal structure, but there are some solutions that may be universally beneficial for the healthcare industry overall. These include the digital integration of enterprise health information, mobile access to healthcare information for employers and employees, the embrace of cloud computing for managing large stores of data that can be accessed remotely and the automation of paper-driven processes so resources can be refocused on customer care. Insurance companies can also utilize big data to provide a clearer picture of healthcare outcomes so medical providers can improve patient care and refocus their attention on initiatives that improve patient lives while cutting healthcare costs nationwide. This new era of big data analysis will require new, skilled workers to answer the call, just as the transition will require experienced consultants to ensure a smooth process overall.

HealthScape Part 4

March 14, 2013 by bobyurkovic

The traditional interaction with payers has been around transactions. Find a doctor, pharmacy, look up my benefits, and look up a claim. This is a transaction layer in the consumer relationship. There is little opportunity to develop a relationship and generate consumer stickiness in this area. Consumers only go to the transaction layer to perform a transaction, which in a large payer, is about one to two times a year. The main reason that many members perform a transaction is because they are going through a health event, such as a sickness or medical condition, so members are already in a stressed state dealing with a personal or family health issue. Not the best time to generate a relationship. The best way a payer can generate a positive experience in this layer is to provide superior support for the member when needed. This translates to a flawless experience by offering a caring connection, managing administrative tasks and processes, and performing event logistics so members can focus on their health. To build productive relationships, payers need to go where the people are and when they are in a good state of mind.

The diagram below shows a representation of the HealthScape from a consumer perspective. There are three distinct layers around health and consumer involvement with the transaction layer being at the core. They are different in how often members interact in each layer.

HealthScape

In the transaction layer, people may interact several times a year with a payer performing a health transaction. In the wellness layer, people interact far more often such as one to two times a week depending in their personal plans for nutrition and exercise. In the lifestyle layer, there is potential for people to be involved in health everyday as it becomes part of a routine in a person’s daily living. In the lifestyle layer, a payer has the potential to achieve relationship nirvana – stickiness.

In the wellness layer, members are focusing on keeping, or getting to, a state of wellness. The big issues on their minds are nutrition, exercise, and healthy behaviors. They are focusing on their health to minimize the risk of being sick and to lead a productive life. The member starts to enter into a relationship with wellness providers and coaches to engage in healthy behaviors. Telephone coaching is an example of this. Wellness is one of many personal priorities a member manages so it may not be the top priority every day and throughout the day. For wellness to be embraced, a member needs to absorb a healthy thinking into their life on a daily basis; it has to be part of their lifestyle.

In a lifestyle layer, people interact, work, play and experience life every day. An example of health in the lifestyle layer, is the new devices that monitor our activity, sleep and nutrition. The Jawbone UP and Fitbit Flex are wearable devices providing biometric data to consumers throughout the day. The devices provide feedback to adjust consumer’s actions and behaviors in order to reach their desired goals. These devices are part of the wearer’s lifestyle and that lifestyle changes based on feedback they provide. If a person is at an office and sitting at a desk too long, an alarm goes off to let the wearer know they need to more active and move around. If this happens often, thinking is changed and a behavior formed leading to healthy outcomes.

Solutions in the lifestyle layer focus on supporting consumers in their quest for sustained healthy living.. It is important to help people approach health in a holistic manner and offer encouragement and tools in the areas of nutrition, exercise, stress, care, community, and healthy habits. Relationship maturity can blossom in the lifestyle layer. To assist payers in their vision to diversify, they can find opportunity in the lifestyle layer by offering tools to reinforce healthy behaviors and be more than providing health plans. The definition of health to a payer is about healthy living for members and not just paying a claim.

The same occurred in the banking industry. Years ago, banks just performed transactions such as deposit a check. Now banks offer rounded services such as financial planning for retirement, college, and family growth supporting a person throughout their life; supporting their lifestyle.

An extension of a payer’s offer could be to aggregate data from multiple biometric devices and offer services to their members such as a health dashboard with relevant content to support decision-making and behavior changes in pursuit of healthier living. As I mentioned under the engagement section, healthy behaviors lowers the causes for chronic diseases, which lowers medical costs in health care.

Is Customer Experience and Consumer Engagement linked? Part 1

March 7, 2013 by bobyurkovic

I call this health blog “Curved Roads”. Curved roads are not efficient; they take more tar to build. They are not the shortest way to a destination so they impact our gas use and they take more time to get somewhere. Yet, there is a grace and beauty in them as they follow the contours of the land and we enjoy them. Curved roads can offer an amazing experience for us. In healthcare, we forgot about the customer experience and we need some curved roads to remind us that efficiency is only part of the satisfaction equation. Consumer centricity needs to be embraced in a payer’s culture if payers wish to engage their members and providers.

LL Bean has been quoted in many industries. The L.L. Bean mission is to live this Golden Rule … “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more.” LL Bean’s definition of a customer is, “A customer is the most important person ever in this company – in person or by mail.” A simple understanding of consumer centricity. Do we treat customers like the most important person?

I’m going to spend some time over the next couple of weeks talking about this subject with a model that shows a connection. Are they connected?

An immediate answer comes to mind, “Yes, absolutely they are connected.” But how and why? What happens when you have a great product but a poor experience. Is it a commodity. Is experience the new differentiator? I have some ideas to share with you from a health care perspective.

Companies launch products and services to consumers with the thought that their product will offer so much value to the consumer without considering the bigger picture. It is a holistic view of the consumer experience that matters if consumer centricity is to be attained. The combination of a product’s functionally and the experience it offers sets a condition for potential consumer engagement and relationship development. Translating this to health care, it is important for payers in health care to focus on providing information and tools so members can do the job of managing their health while offering a connected experience to simplify and navigate the complex maze of health care.

Lotus Network Theory – IoT Hierarchy

September 14, 2001 by bobyurkovic

White Paper: Connectivity and control in a networked device world for mobile and non-mobile environments

Abstract
This is the beginning of a smart, multi-layered, and interconnected network of devices. IoT and M2M concept model with connected devices working in layers to control other devices on a wireless network. Primary devices can become controllers of other devices independent on servers forming their own device network. The layered network of devices includes primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary layers. In use, this can be seen as a smartphone controlling a smart watch or remote sensor in a farm field and acting as a hub of control and localized data storage. Data storage would be held in the network as a central point of access and security.

Distribution of functions and power has pushed out to the world of devices. Devices play important roles as they develop more functionality in a networked world. Some devices are sophisticated enough to control and monitor other devices. With this in mind, structure needs to be defined and roles determined to avoid command confusion and data collisions. Taking the structure of a lotus flower, device control hierarchy and command propagation are shown in a layered model.

Author: R. J. Yurkovic
Version 1.0 – Created 11/01/2000
Version 1.1 – Updated 03/08/2004
Version 1.2 – Updated 7/3/2014

1 Lotus Network Theory: Device Connectivity and Control

To explain multiple layers of control and access between devices, applications, and engines, I am introducing a new concept. The Lotus Network Theory of Connectivity and Control (Lotus Network Theory) shows connectivity between various user-oriented or stand-alone components in a network. This model introduces new layers called secondary, tertiary, quaternary, etc. with devices that can be controlled by primary personal devices. Devices control each other through a layer hierarchy without management of the hub control point.

It also introduces a concept of personal sites that offer a user based Web site offering the user and their devices connectivity and access to the WAN world while offering an added protection of privacy.

1.1 Convergence and Enablement

The importance of a network of devices is required due to several factors:
• New devices are emerging in the market
• Technology for small devices is affordable and small
• Wireless technology places devices on the network
• A convergence of applications around communications is occurring (see diagram below)

Figure 1 – Technology Convergence

2 The Layered Model

Like a lotus flower’s pedals, the center represents the hub – which is an Internet portal. The next layer is represented by a group of personal sites (personal portals). Together, a selected group of user’s sites form a community net. The next layer is represented by a group of personal (primary) devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and personal appliances. The next layer is represented by a group of secondary devices that are controlled by the primary devices. Additional layers can be added as the device network expands.

Figure 2 – Lotus Expansion Model

The layers increase as the complexity of devices decreases. Layers for devices could be:

Primary Laptops, tablets
Secondary Mobile phones
Tertiary Smart watches, biometric devices, appliances*
Quaternary RFID sensors, smart cards
Quinary Location sensors, environment sensors

* Appliances could be home, auto, farming, and work equipment.

The hub can be a wireless 802.11x, Bluetooth, RFID, or cellular network.

2.1 Architecture

Figure 3 – Wireless Device Application Architecture

There are three engines types in the Mobile Internet platform shown above.
• Engines that interface to systems and infrastructure.
• Engines that support applications
• Engines that transport

2.2 Devices

Devices are self-reliant machines with enough intelligence to monitor and send control signals to other devices. The collection of devices forms an intelligent managed network running programmed applications. Devices are wireless terminals with basic wireless capability or handheld units specializing in data and application processing, tactile input, display output, and media input/output. There are primary and secondary devices.
Primary devices are intelligent devices connected via wireless. They may be handheld/phone units and expanded use cell phones. Examples of primary devices are Compaq IPAQ H3600 equipped with wireless interfaces and cell phones equipped with MP3 players, and Sony’s robotic unit equipped with a Mobile Media Pack. Primary devices can control and program secondary devices.

Secondary devices require connectivity via primary devices using 802.11 or Bluetooth technologies. Examples of secondary devices are TV’s, microwaves, alarm systems, automobile radio units, home entertainment units, and medical monitoring systems.

2.3 Community Net

A group of users can decide to form a community net. This net can share information between themselves easily and still maintain a wall between WANs. Such a net could represent a family, group of friends, corporate business group, or individuals with shared interests. The user server is a personal portal.

2.4 Personal Net

A personal net of devices is comprised of all the devices an individual possesses. Common devices are cell phone, PDAs, Laptop PCs, and specialized networked appliances.
Personal devices can adapt to the user’s needs and can maintain multiple terminal personalities. Personalities modify the user interface and control applications to accommodate the user at a particular point in time and space. For example, the user’s personality A may be set for an office environment controlling and accessing office applications and office appliances (secondary devices: whiteboards, projectors, etc.). Personality B may be set for a home environment controlling and accessing home applications and home appliances (secondary devices: microwaves, televisions, etc.).

2.5 Device Net

A device net is a layer of secondary devices that can be controlled by human interfaces or primary devices. For example, a television with remote control could be a secondary device. A person can control the functions of the television with their hands or with a primary device, such as a PDA that acts like a remote control.
The personal portal is the primary barrier of protection of ensuring personal privacy. The personal site is basically a personal web. All personal information and preferences are held in the portal – instead of at the WAN sites. Personal information resides with the person. The person decides what information to share.
This portal can also act as a base for personal transactions micro billing. The portal can act as a personal bank issuing transactions to various WAN based services. Aggregation of all transactions occurs at the personal portal.

3 Uses

In a use scenario, a farm could deploy devices to monitor conditions such as moisture, heat and chemical composition. If several sensors detect low moisture outside of normal parameters, the devices could signal another device that controls water sprinklers to provide water as needed.

3.1 Application to Mobile Media Platform (MMP)

The MMP enables secondary devices to connect to Primary devices such as mobile phones and connected robotics. Secondary devices can be sensors and control points that relay data back to the primary devices.

Figure 4 – MMP Architecture and Applications

3.2 Health Services

An example of device to device use is in the health industry and how biometric devices sense and transmit data to a smartphone or central data gateway so that health data can be aggregated and analyzed for values out of expected parameters. Early detection provides a quicker response time in treating a condition for better outcomes. Centralized monitoring facilities have shown to provide better care and response times aiding physicians and care givers in delivering care.

Figure 5 – Health Biometric Devices and Application Architecture

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