Cynthia Church, Chief Strategy Officer
Digital health is finally seeing the growth the industry has been waiting for, as events of 2021 confirmed that virtual health is here to stay. At Xealth, we had a front row seat to our clients standing up new solutions in record time to address a wide variety of challenges.
But which challenges in particular? Well, we’ve looked across all the initiatives launched by our clients, reaching around 1.5 million patients across 400 hospitals, and we are pleased to share the focus areas that gained the most traction during 2021.
CB Insights released its 2021 State of Digital Health report on the same day we published our own 2021 Best of Digital Health report, noting that U.S. funding for digital health reached a new record of $37.9B. Funding is a solid indicator of support for a shift in healthcare, maybe even a digital transformation; however, the actual programs taking hold in U.S. hospitals are equally impressive.
Partnering with nearly 20 leading health systems, Xealth aggregates and organizes digital health tools and related data within the EHR. Our central spot gives us a unique perspective on digital health deployment – from distribution and enrollment to patient monitoring, tracking activation and engagement.
Consolidating all of the initiatives our health system partners deployed in 2021, we identified key areas of focus across the industry. These represent programs touching 1.5M patients across multiple service lines. Here are a few highlights.
Top Digital Health Categories Across Xealth Clients in 2021
Maternity and surgery are nearly tied for top areas of adoption with leading health systems, including Banner Health, Allina Health, Baystate Health and Providence engaging and monitoring expectant and new mothers. Digital health programs also showed a focus beyond acute treatments with chronic disease management and preventative care proving popular, with UPMC encouraging mammograms and BSWH addressing employee wellness.
Telehealth may publicly be the reigning champ for digital health channels, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) is gaining ground with programs including Advocate Aurora’s Home Health, The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Froedtert Rehabilitation and MemorialCare’s COVID-19 Home Monitoring.
We chose a few programs to share in more detail in our 2021 Best of Digital Health report, along with additional macro trends and a sneak peak into the coming year, which you can read here.
Collectively, these examples showcase Xealth as the leading intelligence and activation platform for digital health, strengthening the relationship between providers and their patients to drive patient behavior and generate value.
This year, and every year, we look forward to helping our clients tighten patient connections to the health system, relieve admin pressures on clinical staff and address gaps in care. Stay tuned for more client successes and product innovation during 2022.