Digital health platforms can set standards for value-based care by redefining clinical decision support

From outcomes to advantage: Digital VBC tools change the game

In VBC models, payment is tied to outcomes, quality scores, and cost reductions, rather than just volume. For healthcare organizations switching to this model or striving to streamline management of VBC programs, research shows that digital health tools offer consistent value in supporting VBC initiatives. That can include supporting:

• Patient identification and risk stratification.
• Remote monitoring and patient self-management.
• Care coordination.
• Outcomes measurement for internal performance metrics and external reporting.
• Health equity and expanding reach.
• Governance and interoperability.

Studies show that digital tools are key facilitators in successful implementation of VBC programs, contributing to such overall results as cost savings, quality improvements, and enhanced patient experience. However, findings also show that many VBC platforms struggle to support standardized care.

Embedded clinical guidance is essential for VBC digital health tools

Healthcare entities expect VBC solutions to actively reduce unwarranted variation in care and support adherence to guidelines by embedding evidence-based best practices into workflows. By putting evidence-based CDS at users’ fingertips to help standardize care, digital platforms are able to support healthcare organizations’ care delivery efforts while also providing an efficient means to measure and help improve quality metrics.

Challenges in achieving this for digital health technology companies include:

• Lack of trusted and current clinical content: Before you can effectively embed CDS into the workflow, you need to have trusted, evidence-based content resources with which to start. Building new content or managing manual content updates is difficult and time-consuming for developers.
• Inconsistent clinician adoption across customer sites: Clinicians are more likely to adopt platforms with which they feel confident and comfortable. Proven, familiar clinical resources with reliable editorial processes and expert contributors help earn user trust in platforms. Also, for that trusted content to be useful, it needs to seamlessly embed within the workflow to provide context-specific recommendations and actionable information at the moment of decision.
• Difficulty tying CDS usage to measurable VBC outcomes: Solutions need to surface real-time guidance at the point of care in order to help improve patient tracking, modalities, and VBC claims acceptance. Transparent methodology is also a must to support payer and regulatory scrutiny.

By embedding a resource like UpToDate® Connect – a powerful API solution designed to help digital health technology companies seamlessly embed trusted, evidence-based clinical content directly into their platforms – developers can ensure platform users are working from the most current, trusted clinical guidance. By providing in-workflow access to evidence-based content from UpToDate® authored and continuously updated by more than 7,600 clinician and medical experts, UpToDate Connect directly supports quality measure performance, reducing unwarranted variation, and helping digital health platform users succeed under VBC models.

To learn more, explore the new UpToDate Connect solution for digital health tech developers.