When it comes to the payor’s perspective, we owe Dr. Kenneth Snow a great deal of gratitude for his expertise and insight on digital health and outcomes.
Dr. Snow is Clinical Portfolio Medical Director in the Transformation Section of CVS Health. His focus is on the advancement of the CVS Health clinical strategy to improve the health of customers and the quality of care they receive.
He also serves as Medical Director for Healthagen Outcomes, overseeing projects for external clients with attention to analytical results and clinical conclusions. Dr. Snow serves as lead for the endocrinology and gastroenterology condition analysis team and as a thought leader around diabetes care and chronic disease management.
Welldoc’s thought leaders recently joined Dr. Snow on several panels including one with the American Telemedicine Association and HLTH. Here are a few key topics and takeaways from Dr. Snow:
Artificial Intelligence
“We have reached the point now where AI can really begin accumulating data and putting some intelligence behind this on how to interpret it. Rather than looking at each single data point, we start to look at patterns.
Using various methods of AI and organization, we’re getting to the point now where we’re starting to see the organization of this data in ways so we can rapidly scan the data and understand what intelligence you should derive from it, rather than getting into the weeds of every single data point. As we do that and the more it occurs and becomes more sophisticated, the more it will help physicians.”
Navigating Digital Health Solutions
“From the payor perspective, there is the ever-growing body of digital health tools that are out there. One more app. One more digital tool, which on one level is good, but on another level, it really beckons the question – which one will actually cause improvement in health?
Which ones are just really window dressing? They’re there. They work. They do what they say they’re going to do, but they don’t really change outcomes.
From the payer perspective, if it’s not going to improve outcomes, there’s not much value to us because there’s not much value to our members. If the member isn’t better off because of it, then there’s not much value to it and as such, if there’s no value, there’s probably no payment associated with it.”
Outcomes and Data
“With Welldoc, we used OneTouch Reveal Plus®, powered by BlueStar, to reach out to a number of Aetna Health members with type 2 diabetes. We took a hands-off approach. We stepped back and said, well let’s see what happens without us intervening, getting in the way. What impact will we see from this technology?
We saw an improvement in blood glucose and A1C, and we saw broad adoption and continued use. They had the option of using this online or on their phones, and 100% wanted to use the technology on their phones because this is what’s convenient. They also used the education modules that were available at the time they wanted it. They also shared their information with their providers.
In a world of diabetes particularly, where so much of the care is transfer of data between patient and provider, and transfer of information back from provider to patient, it really does lend itself to telehealth visits. I think we’ll see more of this.”
In collaboration with LifeScan, our study showed BlueStar users saw clinically significant reductions in A1C, reduced costs, and high levels of engagement. Read more.
