Effective engagement technologies address patient psychology

Patient engagement has long been a tough nut for healthcare to crack, and it’s not for a lack of trying. New technologies that meet the patient in their home offer a clear opportunity to meet patients throughout the course of their daily lives, but the tools themselves are only half of the solution — making a real connection is just as much about addressing and responding to each individual’s mentality.

“We use a unique interface for approaching patients — we put a cute little robot in homes as opposed to a call center of nurses or sending someone out to patients’ homes,” Dr. Cory Kidd, CEO and founder of care engagement startup Catalia Health, told MobiHealthNews. “The reason behind that is not so much about the technology, but the psychology. … That psychology of human face-to-face interaction works really well there, and acts as an effective way to keep patients engaged over time.”

Catalia has come a long way since its first seed funding round back in 2015 and its most recent raise in late 2017. Just last month, its unique approach to in-home engagement yielded the startup a new partnership with Pfizer headlined by a 12-month pilot of its platform among patients receiving specialty drugs.

“One of the things we see in that specialty drugs market in general is there are typically care management programs that are associated with those and paid for by the drug manufacturer. The majority of those look like a call center,” Kidd said. “So at a high level we provide the same kind of program … but instead of a call center of nurses we put our robot, Mabu, into homes and use that to talk to patients every day, and then relay relevant information back to the clinician so they can provider better care. At a higher level it’s a care management program like would be delivered today, but it’s just something much more effective in being able to interact with each and every patient.”