In this episode of The Executive Innovation Show Podcast, Carrie Chitsey speaks with is Jillian Bridgette Cohen, the CEO & Co-founder of Virtual Health Partners, Inc & Robert Armstrong, the CEO of Appstem.
Jillian is the CEO & Co-founder of Virtual Health Partners, Inc., founded in May 2015. With over 15 years of experience in the medical industry, Jillian was responsible for the multi-million-dollar growth of three start-up companies, with a strong focus on the non-invasive weight loss space.
Robert serves as the CEO of Appstem, a San Francisco based Digital Product Agency, and was named a Top Digital Innovator by DataBird, a leading tech business journal.
Listen in as we talk about topics such as:
Virtual care has become a necessity in today's patient's busy lifestyle. Jillian breaks down the backstory about why Virtual Health Partners was created and how they are paving the way to connect consumers virtually to nutrition coaches. After being in the gastric bypass and bariatric medical device space, she set out to create the “Uber” of nutrition.
Most consumers don’t realize the value of nutrition and how much that drives chronic care conditions. With virtual nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle modification through the Virtual Health Partners app, patients are able to connect and educate themselves on the correct foods to eat. We talk more nutrition drivers and how someone with Crohn’s disease, for example, can have flare-ups from certain foods. How does the Virtual Health Partners app alleviate those food discrepancies and help patients live a healthier life?
As we start to become progressive about nutrition and the value care system, are managed care organizations implementing these programs? Jillian talks about how insurance companies are hopping on board to cover a full package offering that includes one-on-one live video coaching, live-streamed lifestyle modification classes, and more.
Carrie talks about why it’s important for hospitals and healthcare companies to NOT create mobile apps to just to have a mobile app. Consumers’ are now more reluctant to download mobile apps that do not engage them and for one time use, they prefer to use the mobile browser. Jillian speaks about how to create a virtual care app that engages the user and increasing the retention rate of the app. She explains how the first few weeks that a user downloads a mobile app is very critical. By looking at the behaviors and features the patient uses helps to create personalized push notifications and content to keep that user coming back. Hear the best practices and tips that Virtual Health Partners uses to keep a high retention rate.
The need for instant connection among Millennials and Gen Z are very apparent. As a video first calling demographic, hear about the dramatic change that has taken place in the last 2 years for one-on-one coaching. In the past, phone conversations were a primary way of conversing. Now, Virtual Health Partners is seeing that about 70% of health coach appointments through the app are done through a video vs. phone calls.
Robert Armstrong of Appstem details the current landscape of virtual care apps in the healthcare industry. Listen as we talk about the rise of telemedicine and how more healthcare systems are looking to integrate remote patient monitoring within their mobile apps to provide proactive care. He describes how the emergence of the Internet of Things in medical devices is truly taking shape in virtual healthcare.
Listen as he gives recommendations on how to make your mobile application “sticky”. We walk through the strategic thinking you should have when designing a mobile app. Robert gives advice on things you do not want your app to do such as being a mirror image of your website. He provides the best features, additions, and tools you should be adding to your healthcare mobile app to increase usage and retention rates.
Looking to future - with the rise of Baby Boomers aging at home, how will virtual care and home care mobile apps play a role in the virtual care model. We discuss the next steps of these mobile apps and how the healthcare landscape will change in the next few years. Hear about how remote monitoring will play a huge role in proactive care, pre and post-surgery and follow up appointments via telehealth.
Robert gives his three tops trends that will see in the future of healthcare and mobile applications. One of them is data interoperability, being able to access the data from all data sources to create a more unified view of patients' health. Listen and find out what the other two are!
Keep up with Jillian Bridgette Cohen and Virtual Health Partners on all social media platforms at @vhpgo.
Robert Armstrong and Appstem are up to amazing things, keep connected with them on LinkedIn.
To learn more on the future of virtual healthcare download the new "Telemedicine Pros and Cons" White Paper mentioned in the podcast on digital patient engagement.
