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Healthcare Is Everywhere | Health + Wellness This Week

This article is part of ParkerWhite’s weekly series, “Health and Wellness This Week,” a roundup of the latest healthcare marketing news and what it means for your marketing strategy.

Nutrition Tracking Made Easy - Jawbone Makes App Improvements

Many people are attracted to the idea of tracking what they eat. They just don't like inputting the data. The latest app update for the Up fitness band offers a totally updated food tracking experience. They've done this with the help of technology from Nutrivise, the company they acquired last year, and partnerships with online food services, including HealthyOut, Munchery, and Platejoy. They also introduced a Food Score, to allow people to easily tell the quality of the food they're eating without studying nutritional facts.

Marketing Insight

  • Design for users - make things easier to use, focus on user interface (UI) and user experience (UX)
  • Simplify things - life is complicated for most people and almost everyone craves simplicity
  • Seek strategic partnerships - everything in health is becoming integrated, find partnerships that are mutually beneficial and will make you stronger

Remote Patient Monitoring Saves Money

Research recently published online from Telemedicine and e-Health shows that remote monitoring of rural and underserved heart failure patients reduces the number and length of hospitalizations, as well as hospital charges. Patients' weight, blood pressure, heart rate and pulse oximetry information was regularly collected, then sent from a device to a secure web portal for a nursing care coordinator to review.

Marketing Strategy Insight

  • More and more products seek to keep people healthy across the care continuum
  • There's financial incentive to keeping people healthy and out of the hospital
  • Clinical evidence with powerful ROI numbers is very compelling

Mobile Health Solves Primary Care Shortage

There's a primary care shortage in the U.S. and mobile health is helping to fill in the gaps. This is especially in rural areas where mobile health/telehealth adoption is high. Patients are using mobile apps to connect to primary care physicians and gain access to other medical experts they wouldn't normally be able to reach.

Marketing Strategy Insight

  • Home health is getting really big
  • People want to access healthcare on their own terms
  • People aren't afraid to use digital technologies to access healthcare

Google and Novartis Team Up For Smart Contact Lens

Google announced the licensing of their smart eyewear to Novartis, who will develop the technology into a product. These smart contact lenses will help correct farsighted vision and aid in the management of diseases and conditions. This includes letting diabetic patients measure sugar levels in tear liquid and access data via smartphone or tablet.

Marketing Strategy Insight

  • Strategic partnerships to leverage your best assets and someone else's are very powerful
  • People really like to manage their health via their smartphones and tablets
  • Expect to see more "smart" technology in healthcare
Healthcare Is Everywhere | Health & Wellness Blog - PW