Author: Avidon IT Team

The last three years have been detrimental to the U.S. healthcare system. We’ve all seen the headlines proclaiming the “U.S. Healthcare System is in Critical Condition,” or that “Providers are Serving More with Less Staff, Funding.” These all ring true – the system is fractured.

The healthcare system’s stressors are being compounded at every turn. To start, healthcare workers are burnt out. A recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a peer-reviewed journal, shows that nearly 63% of physicians reported one manifestation of burnout in 2021, a dramatic increase from 38% in 2020 suggesting distress was overwhelmingly work related.

Also adding to the strain are staffing shortages, forcing already weary healthcare workers to do more with less. The alarm’s been sounding for years, but today, the U.S. faces a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The same story is playing out across the board, from primary to mental healthcare.

And at a time when patients need extra support to overcome the many barriers throughout their healthcare journey – which can hinder care, progress and recovery – providers are also in need of reinforcements. Advanced technologies, like automation, are coming to their aid.

Providing health and wellness support that goes beyond the clinic

There often aren’t enough hours in the day for patients to take the actions they want, and need, to make lasting health and wellness changes. However, given the sheer prevalence of chronic health conditions in the U.S., where 6 in 10  Americans live with at least one chronic disease, it is imperative providers take action to support their patients’ wellness journeys in any way they can. The good news, they can achieve this without working around the clock.

With a digital wellness tool, providers can bridge the care gap to support patients well beyond the clinic. How? By automating everything including patient messaging, reminders, coaching and the sharing of engaging, relevant and on-demand content that addresses individual needs without requiring added time from already strained healthcare workers.

Meeting patient expectations that don’t align with traditional care models

Physical and follow-up appointments typically don’t allow adequate time to address all of a patient’s needs. As for the one-on-one coaching that drives engagement and helps patients achieve lasting healthy outcomes, that’s impossible in a traditional care setting.

Patients, however, both need and have come to expect high, personal levels of care – like the 24/7 help they receive from nearly all other services. It’s a standard of care that only stands to exasperate provider burnout. And with value-based care, providers have to meet expectations for improving health outcomes, despite factors that are well beyond their control.

Here comes automation to lighten the load. With digitally enabled at-home support, providers can meet – and also exceed – patient expectations by creating personal care paths that elevate the entire patient experience. Now, providers can give patients the personal coaching and attention they need to achieve their health and wellness goals.

Delivering personalized care experiences that lead to better outcomes

Digital platforms – like Engagement Rx^® with Flows 2.0 – deliver wellness coaching and automation to help providers meet patients where they are and deliver essential wellness services 24/7. With the ability to automate digital patient interactions, say after a missed appointment or wellness achievement, providers can keep patients on track with ease.

Such platforms can be leveraged to:

• Deliver on-demand, microlearning content and courses
• Communicate patient support in a private, convenient way
• Provide messages of encouragement and track progress

With the ability to create personalized care pathways, providers can help patients build a solid foundation for every step of their health and wellness journey. It’s a win-win-win for patients, providers and the healthcare system. Patients who successfully improve their health, complete treatment protocols and continue to make healthier choices require fewer interventions – meaning less strain on limited resources and weary healthcare providers.

Discover how Avidon Health’s Engagement Rx Flows 2.0 makes it easier for providers to create customized care pathways for large groups of patients that can effectively deliver more personalized care, patient interactions and lasting healthy outcomes.

Engagement Rx^® is a powerful technology solution that has the potential to revolutionize the way medical professionals deliver lifestyle medicine to their patients. With its content rich care paths, Engagement Rx makes it easier for patients to achieve their lifestyle goals and promote optimal health. In this article, we will explore how medical professionals can harness the power of Engagement Rx to enhance their lifestyle medicine practices and better serve their patients.

What is Engagement Rx?

Engagement Rx is a comprehensive technology tool that provides healthcare professionals with the resources they need to deliver effective lifestyle medicine programs. The tool includes modules, courses, targeting and tracking features, and other advanced features that enable healthcare professionals to create customized lifestyle medicine programs for their patients.

Engagement Rx makes use of behavior change methodologies such as motivational interviewing, goal setting, and positive reinforcement to create a personalized approach to lifestyle medicine for each patient. The tool also includes interactive programs, videos, quizzes, and other engaging content that keep patients motivated and on track with their health goals.

How can Engagement Rx enhance lifestyle medicine practices?

• Customized health programs: Engagement Rx provides medical professionals with the ability to create customized care paths tailored to individual patient needs. The solution enables doctors to personalize each patient’s program, considering their health goals and status.
• Track progress and outcomes: Engagement Rx tracks patient behavior and evaluates the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine interventions. Health practitioners can track patient progress, support adherence to recommended health behaviors, and provide patients with data-driven feedback.
• Remote patient monitoring: With Engagement Rx, physicians can monitor patient health remotely, reducing office visits, and improving patient satisfaction. Health practitioners can use Engagement Rx to deliver health trackers to monitor the patients’ physical activity, stress, sleep, and other health-related behaviors.
• Resource consolidation: Engagement Rx provides healthcare practitioners with a centralized platform for delivering lifestyle medicine programs. The software consolidates resources and supports scalability, enabling practitioners to provide exemplary care to more individuals.
• Better patient engagement: Engagement Rx leads to better patient engagement by creating personalized approaches to lifestyle medicine. The tool engages patients with interactive content, quizzes, and other educational resources, making it easier for them to understand and implement health recommendations.

Conclusion

Engagement Rx presents an unparalleled opportunity for medical professionals to enhance their lifestyle medicine practices. The solution’s features allow for personalized care paths, customization of wellness journeys, tracking, adding unique content, and overall better patient engagement. Healthcare providers can manage their patients better by making use of the advanced features of Engagement Rx. By harnessing the power of Engagement Rx, medical professionals can deliver exemplary preventive care and guide patients toward healthier living.

Engagement Rx^® is a powerful technology tool that can help you expand your lifestyle medicine practice beyond physical boundaries. With its advanced features and customizable care paths, Engagement Rx allows healthcare professionals to create personalized wellness programs for patients regardless of their location. In this article, we will discuss how Engagement Rx can help you expand your lifestyle medicine practice beyond physical boundaries.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine has made medical care available to patients regardless of their location. With Engagement Rx, you can extend your lifestyle medicine services beyond your geographic region. The solution’s tracking features enable you to provide high-quality health services to your patients from anywhere.

Customized patient programs

Engagement Rx allows you to create customized wellness programs for your patients based on their demographic data, health history, and lifestyle goals. The tool’s advanced features enable you to track and monitor patient progress, provide support and feedback, and adjust the program as necessary. With tailored programs, you can offer personalized care to patients, even those from a different location.

Interactive content

Engagement Rx features interactive courses, quizzes, and educational resources that engage patients and make it easier for them to understand and implement healthy lifestyle recommendations. The interactive content is accessible online, making it easier for patients to access from wherever they are and regardless of where they are located.

Better patient engagement

Engagement Rx enhances patient engagement by personalizing approaches to lifestyle medicine. The tool provides a platform for patients to access health content and track their progress, making it easier for them to achieve their health goals. With better patient engagement, you can foster an ongoing relationship with your patients and ensure long-term success in lifestyle medicine.

Scalability

Engagement Rx enables you to scale your practice by consolidating resources and providing a centralized platform for delivering lifestyle medicine programs. With a scalable solution, you can deliver comprehensive preventive care to more patients, regardless of their location.

Conclusion

Engagement Rx offers a powerful solution for expanding your lifestyle medicine practice beyond physical boundaries. Avidon Health is focused on the personalization and application of behavior-based science to address hard-to-break habits. This approach combined with Lifestyle medicine is making a real difference. Lifestyle Medicine is an emerging field that seeks to prevent, treat, and manage chronic diseases through lifestyle interventions, such as nutrition, physical activity, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, sleep and social support.

With customized patient programs, interactive content, better patient engagement, and scalability, you can offer top-notch preventive care to patients from anywhere in the world. The solution’s features make it easier for healthcare practitioners to connect with patients and deliver personalized healthcare services. By harnessing the power of Engagement Rx, you can grow your lifestyle medicine practice and make a more significant impact on improving population health.

Flows 2.0 makes it easier to create customized care paths that can be efficiently implemented for large groups of participants, allowing for more personalized and effective participant interactions.

Health coaching teams know that building trusting connections with their clients and personalizing care can help improve health outcomes. However, in today’s healthcare landscape, health coaching teams do not always have the time – and are not typically reimbursed – for developing custom wellness plans or ensuring their adherence.

Engagement Rx^® provides the tools for health coaching teams to personalize engagement to create behavior change at scale. The platform’s newest release, Flows 2.0, you can further customize care paths and leverage automation. Flows 2.0 offers more flexibility in designing personalized health programs by creating unique experiences based on the needs of your population. These care paths are designed by experts using lifestyle medicine principles to help individuals achieve their health goals using behavior-based content, courses, tools, and resources.

One of the primary benefits of Engagement Rx is that it can help health coaching teams create a more personalized experience. With Flows 2.0, you have the capability to add branching logic to care paths that address the specific needs and goals of each participant. For health coaching teams, Flows are a hugely versatile tool and can be used in Engagement Rx templates as the building blocks of microlearning courses or as a streamlined method of onboarding new participants. By doing so, participants are more likely to engage with their health and be invested in their care, leading to better health outcomes.

For example, an individual who is trying to manage their diabetes may receive a care path that includes personalized content on nutrition, exercise, and medication management. The care path may also include reminders to exercise and prompts to schedule appointments with their healthcare provider. With Engagement Rx, their care plan is tailored to their individual needs, making it more effective and motivating – and it’s all delivered automatically.

Engagement Rx also helps health coaching teams save time and resources by automating many aspects of participants communication. With Flows 2.0 combined with Automations, health coaching teams can create automated to-do’s that are triggered by specific participants actions. The automated messages can include reminders, educational content, and prompts to schedule follow-up appointments, making it easier for participants to stay on track with their care.

The new Flow 2.0 also includes the following features:

• Template Catalog: You can now select from a growing library of templates curated by professionals. These Flows are created following best practices so you can save time and publish participant experiences faster getting you to market quicker. You can choose to use Flow templates as-is or personalize them to meet your individual needs.
• Automation Components: Automation actions can now be triggered directly from within Flows 2.0 from anywhere you desire. This integration of automation actions will make it much easier to view the entire participant experience.
• New Branching Logic Component: Branching logic is now available as a stand-alone component that can be used from anywhere within a flow – removing the need to branch directly from a question.
• Improved Builder Behavior and Presentation: We have added some significant enhancements to how you view and interact with components as you build Flows. Each component more clearly shows the intended action item. These improvements will make it much easier to understand the user experience without having to select individual components to gain insight.
• Publishing Model: You have more control during the creation and refinement of Flows. These publishing features will help to ensure a better experience for not just content creators but for participants as well – ensuring that they see only the content you want them to when you want them to see it.

Engagement Rx can help improve outcomes by providing participants with the resources and tools they need to manage their health more effectively. Flows 2.0 makes it easy to provide impactful, personalized content so individuals can improve their health. By empowering participants with the knowledge and tools to manage their health, health coaching teams can help participants achieve better health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

Engagement Rx, now with Flows 2.0, is a powerful tool that can help health coaching teams and lifestyle medicine providers create personalized experiences for their participants. With Flows 2.0, coaching teams can automate customized care paths, deliver engaging communication touchpoints, and provide helpful resources, all while saving time and improving outcomes. Learn more about Flow 2.0 features here.

Community centers play a vital role in the health and well-being of local residents.

Through their physical spaces and engaging programming, community centers connect seniors, empower local youth, promote healthy lifestyles and strengthen community bonds. These social connections can foster stronger, safer and more inclusive communities, while services and programs can advance individual and community-level health and wellness initiatives.

Achieving positive outcomes hinges on community center performance; leading us to ask: does your community center measure any Key Performance Indicators a.k.a. KPIs? These are the measurable values that indicate how effectively your organization is performing in terms of engagement, financial success, member loyalty and more.

KPIs can give your community center data that can be used when setting engagement goals, devising strategies to reach targets and tracking progress.

Here we look at the three must-know KPIs community centers should be measuring – and using – to elevate member experiences and improve health and wellness outcomes.

No. 1 Member Dropout Rate

It’s estimated that in 2021 some 66.5 million Americans ages six and older, or 1 in 5 people, were members of a health club or fitness studio, according to IHRSA’s (The Global Health & Fitness Association) annual Health Club Consumer Report. Yet, the report found that most health and wellness centers lose 50% of new memberships within the first six months.

A community center’s member dropout rate is among the best indicators of the effectiveness of its engagement. By measuring how many members opted out of renewals or dropped out of memberships midway through, community centers can better understand when and why people are walking away from memberships and find ways to mitigate these dropout causes.

Are potential members dropping out after an initial trial period? It’s possible finances or your onboarding experience had an effect. In fact, 87% of gym members surveyed by IHRSA whose membership outlasted the six-month threshold had a positive onboarding experience. Does your data show that memberships wane ahead of annual renewal dates? It could be that your members haven’t seen – or experienced – the full value of your programs and services.

No. 2 Member Loyalty (a.k.a. Net Promoter Score)

The strength of every organization is rooted in its ability to build strong, long-term loyalty – and it’s no different for community centers. This brings us to our second must-know KPI: your Net Promoter Score (NPS), a customer experience metric that measures loyalty.

By tracking your community center’s NPS, you’ll discover whether or not current members are satisfied with their membership. Truth be told, your NPS score is one of the easiest metrics to track. It’s all based upon asking your members one simple question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”

This isn’t just an exit question either. Community centers can and should pose this question to members at various points throughout their trial periods and annual membership plans as NPS scores are a key way to garner member feedback on their experiences. It can also be an early indicator of engagement – be it positive or negative. With this feedback on satisfaction, community centers can make changes to better engage members and increase loyalty.

No. 3: Employee Engagement

It’s important to note: KPIs aren’t just about numbers. One of the most important indicators of a community center’s success comes down to attitudes, especially of your center’s staff.

We have another question for you: are you measuring how your employees feel about coming to work every day? What about asking employees about your organization’s mission? Are they aligned with your mission? Do they readily share this mission with your members? And are your employees themselves benefitting from your health and wellness programs?

You can gauge employment engagement by tracking employee retention rates, conducting employee surveys and knowing your eNPS score. If your employees aren’t satisfied, engaged and loyal, how can you expect your members to be?

Every day, community centers make neighborhoods better places to live, work and play.

By understanding your baseline KPIs, community centers can uncover problems and mitigate issues to ensure members, and employees, remain engaged and loyal. With the help of a digital wellness solution, community centers can digitize and simplify their onboarding processes, communicate relevant program offerings, send program reminders, provide encouraging messages and track key KPIs to improve member, and staff, experiences.

Contact our team to discover how Avidon Health’s Engagement Rx can optimize your member engagement, support employees and elevate your performance metrics.

Today, more than half of the U.S. adult population has at least one chronic health condition, and upward of 40% have multiple. These chronic diseases – heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease included – are the nation’s leading causes of death, disability and healthcare costs. In fact, some 90% of the nation’s $4.1 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures are spent on treating chronic and mental health conditions.

The complexities and expenses associated with chronic diseases make their prevention and treatment burdensome; plus, the challenges are being compounded. Facing the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, an aging population and worsening shortage of primary care physicians, the treatment and prevention pathways of chronic diseases are on track to get even worse.

It’s clear: the way our healthcare system has long treated chronic diseases, with occasional check-ins and at-home management, isn’t enough. Why? The problem of adherence to at-home chronic disease management remains unsolved. But technology offers a remedy.

Here we explore 3 ways primary care and lifestyle medicine providers can utilize digital wellness solutions to help patients stay on track after, and in between, their in-person appointments.

No. 1 : Establish regular connections

The current management model for chronic health conditions is failing patients. Today, patients schedule appointments, undergo testing and receive diagnoses, treatment plans and medicine. Often, patients are then left to their own devices. Providers can do better. Utilizing a digital wellness solution, providers can fill in the gaps between appointments to check in on patients and monitor their progress and adherence to recommended treatment plans. These regular patient-provider connections can establish trust and foster meaningful engagement that drives lifestyle changes, treatment consistency and healthy outcomes.

No. 2 : Provide convenient, flexible care

Patient lives aren’t linear. They have ups and downs, take left turns and don’t always go according to plan. This means to truly be effective, treatment plans should factor in a level of flexibility that allows patients to adjust their care and goals as their lives inevitably shift. Whether a patient is trying to lose weight, quit smoking, reduce stressors or improve their overall health, providers can now offer convenient, flexible care pathways that address individual health issues and goals digitally. With the right tool, providers can launch on-demand courses, content and videos that educate patients with quick information hits and tips on improving their health and reducing chronic disease risks when it’s convenient.

No. 3: Enhance patient experiences

With digitally enabled at-home support, providers can boost patient engagement. How? By delivering personalized care experiences that align with an individual’s lifestyle, health needs, goals and learning styles. Providers can now launch, and scale, patient-specific care pathways with the help of digital tools that automate personalized support, patient reminders and content specific to a patient’s health conditions and interests.

As providers grapple with how best to manage the continued strains on staffing, the growing number of aging patients, the rise in chronic conditions and increased patient needs, they need to consider the available technology solutions bridging the widening gaps in healthcare. By leveraging a digital wellness solution, providers can support patients beyond their in-person appointments to make chronic disease management easier and patient goals achievable.

Discover how Avidon Health’s Engagement Rx^® can aid primary care and lifestyle medicine providers in helping patients achieve lasting outcomes in their health, to ultimately prevent and treat chronic disease, get in touch with our team.

The health of our nation is at a critical level. Today, it’s estimated 6 in 10 American adults have a chronic disease, with 40% of adults having two or more such diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With the prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity and other chronic illnesses, lifestyle medicine is needed now more  than ever.

With the potential to prevent, and reverse, chronic diseases, lifestyle medicine providers can effectively drive change to help individuals add years to their lives. And yet, barriers to positive outcomes exist – predominantly where patient engagement is concerned. How can providers keep patients engaged after their appointments and throughout their journey to better health? Personalized care with the help of the right technology.

Here we look at how digital wellness tools equipped with automation technology can help lifestyle medicine providers see benefits in their practices and patient populations.

Increased motivation for lasting lifestyle changes

Often, individuals are highly motivated to make critical lifestyle changes when they, or a family member, are diagnosed with a chronic illness or present risk indicators of disease. This a-ha moment is the first step in helping individuals improve their health and well-being.

With digital wellness technology, lifestyle medicine providers can capitalize on these moments of realization and early motivation to engage patients with vital educational offerings to better understand health issues. Providers can now easily launch personalized online courses, with on-demand content, videos and articles, to educate and engage patients throughout every stage of their health and wellness journey. Whether it is for weight management, fitness, sleep, smoking cessation or healthy eating, these convenient, microlearning courses keep patients on track to achieve lasting health goals.

Streamlined communication and administrative operations

Lifestyle medicine providers transform lives, but often get bogged down by administrative tasks and are often limited by short appointments. With digital tools at their fingertips, providers can now deliver individualized care at scale, driving positive patient and practice outcomes beyond the clinic.

For providers looking to streamline their communications, send patient reminders, save time on administrative operations and enhance their program offerings, automated digital wellness tools could be their all-in-one solution. With digital tools like Engagement Rx^®, clinics can automate the delivery of personalized content – addressing everything from substance use to stress management – while sending encouraging patient messages and program reminders. Providers can effectively, and automatically, educate patients, boost engagement, track progress and encourage patient participation without the employee involvement.

Improved patient engagement, retention and outcomes

As chronic diseases maintain a stronghold on U.S. adults, lifestyle medicine providers need tools that help, not hinder, their practices. With digital wellness tools – like Engagement Rx – providers can hyperfocus on what they do best: treat the whole patient to prevent and reverse chronic health issues. Such tools have a number of positive outcomes, including:

• Increased Knowledge: With the ability to launch on-demand educational courses, content and videos, providers can easily provide patients with bite-sized information and tips on improving health and reducing health risks whenever it’s convenient.
• Deeper Engagement: Providing discrete, digital communication tools and learning options, providers can ensure patients feel supported and secure as they address their health and wellness needs and work toward their goals in a safe, private manner.
• Better Outcomes: By facilitating the delivery of additional program offerings and opportunities for digital engagement, providers can inspire patients to stay motivated, increase program retention and, ultimately, see more positive health outcomes.

Lifestyle medicine providers are ideally positioned to help adults nationwide improve their health while preventing, treating and reversing chronic diseases – and with the right digital tool, there’s no limit to the positive impact providers can have on patient outcomes.

Contact our team for more information on how our all-in-one digital wellness platform and automation technology can help practices engage patients and drive positive outcomes.

Technology, such as digital wellness programs, is helping to reshape the health and wellness industry, enabling providers to deliver personalized care at scale that’s accessible when, where, and how participants prefer. It’s helping providers work smarter, not harder, to streamline programs and deliver engaging, personalized care and content that drives results.

Leveraging technology and automation, for everything from program enrollment, content, reminders, and surveys, health and wellness providers can communicate with participants and keep them engaged along every step of their health and wellness journey. Here we explore the automations that can increase the performance of health and wellness programs:

No. 1: Automating your onboarding process

We think it’s safe to say no one wants to be bogged down in paperwork – even if it’s digital. Providers can eliminate clunky onboarding processes with the help of digital wellness solutions. How? Automation. By automating their onboarding, providers give program participants the freedom to fill out intake forms and answer questionnaires at their own pace and convenience. This gives providers the opportunity to ask more in-depth questions and gain insights into the lifestyle choices, preferences and goals of program participants.

With a deeper understanding of how participants think, act, learn, and communicate at the start of their health and wellness journeys, providers can quickly launch personalized content and care. That’s essential in the health and wellness sector, where providers need to seize the opportunity to engage participants when they are most enthusiastic about enacting change.

It begins with creating an easy onboarding process that allows program participants to dive right into the good stuff – that is the content, learning, and results, they want, fast.

No. 2: Automating your educational resources

With the right tech in hand, providers can automate the delivery of educational resources that supplement in-person, or one-on-one, coaching. The ability to easily launch personalized content that meets the needs of each and every participant gives providers the ability to meet people where they are, with the content and tools they need anytime and anywhere.

With every automation, it’s important to consider how people communicate and utilize preferred methods to spark engagement. Take SMS (text) for example. Studies show that as people turn more frequently to their phones for everything from shopping to health visits, they are opening more text messages than emails. In fact, SMS open rates hover between 90-99% depending on who you ask. This casual mode of communication with a more personal feel should be considered as a prime channel for all sharing and communications.

No. 3: Automating your participant reminders

We’ve all experienced the dreaded New Year’s resolution slump. You know that point along the road to better eating or steady exercise where life has other plans and your enthusiasm wanes. It’s a tale as old as time, but it’s also one technology and automation are rewriting.

Providers have long grappled with the precipitous challenge of inspiring participants, and keeping them engaged, throughout the duration of their health and wellness journeys. Now, thanks to automation, when motivation dwindles or progress stalls, providers can deliver energizing program reminders that give participants that jolt of inspiration they need.

By simply automating reminders (especially via text), providers can inspire participants to complete modules, delve into content, and show up for one-on-one sessions. What’s more: providers can automate personalized messages of support that encourage participants to continue making health-positive decisions and stay on track with their goals.

No. 4: Automating your program feedback

Participants in health and wellness programs come ready and willing to make a change. In doing so, they open themselves up to accepting feedback from providers about the choices they make in their day-to-day lives. If providers emulate this openness to feedback, they can gain actionable insight into their programs, services, and participant reception and results.

Soliciting honest participant feedback in both in-person and virtual settings, however, can be challenging. Here’s where automation comes into play once more. Providers can automate the sending of participant surveys and feedback forms to learn about their individual program progress, goals, and how they are liking the coaching program. By automating insight-gathering tools, providers can use participant experiences to make improvements during a participant’s journey to build strong provider-patient relationships and drive results.

To learn more about how technology and automation can help providers engage and inspire health and wellness program participants throughout every step of their lifestyle-change journey, contact our team.