I recently had a chat with an industry colleague who mentioned a couple of learnings from her trial with remote patient monitoring systems.
Here is a brief list of items to consider:
- User enrollment is hard
This is especially something that should be noted in the context of a chronic patient management tool. Would I trust a public company telling me to sign up for an app to manage a chronic condition or would I trust my doctor? Would I trust any doctor? Or would I trust a doctor I recognize (doctor I visit, a doctor of considerable reputation). To engage patients, you will need to engage clinicians. Otherwise it is going to cause a lot of frustration post launch. In the digital health space, sometimes enrollment may be harder than development and approval.
- Use the device patients use for a specific market
If Iphone dominates a market, maybe a pilot needs to be iphone only. Stretching yourself thin for a proof of concept may not be wise. For commercial launch, consider the top 2 devices in the market which for most countries at this point is iOS and android based devices.
- Aesthetics matter in wearables
Imagine you gave a BP cuff that is white in color to someone who lives in Florida. Over time, the white is going to take on a hue of dirty white. Your user may not be willing to use the product as often as you would like them to. The best case scenario would be to use existing devices in the market- smart watches. The second best case would be to pick a custom device that doesnt look ugly. This would help to not eliminate the market that is conscious of aesthetics which is a lot.
- Buy vs Build a solution
Sometimes, it is best to leave it to people who know what they are doing instead of doing it yourself. There is a learning curve with everything. When speed matters, the learning curve is not your friend. This person had a bad experience with the build quality, cost, and schedule- that is pretty much everything. If they were to do it again, they would work with a digital health solution provider
- Leave minimum set-up work for your users
You are better off shipping your users devices/wearables that are already setup to work with your application rather than send them instructions on what to buy, how to setup and additional instructions. Even the best of us struggle with instructions and pre-work will save you a ton of time.