Digital Health has been a hot market space in recent times with investors collectively pouring $26 billion since 2010 and over $7.2 billion just last year.  Mobile health or mHealth apps were seen as a crucial element in managing chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma, by helping patients take care of their lifestyle and medications.  In fact, mHealth Apps were the largest funded category in digital health, with over 325,000 apps available by end of 2017.   

Imagine a patient just diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness such as diabetes, arthritis, asthma or a combination of these illnesses. A patient’s knowledge might range from complete unfamiliarity on these conditions or just a basic understanding from episodic visits to the clinic. And in most cases, patients have lots of questions that go unanswered like how it will change their daily routine? What therapies are best for them? Are there any clinical programs they can be part of?

Only 10% of health is determined by care received at a doctor's office. Other factors like economic stability, residential environment, education, food, and community play a significant role in health outcomes. Individual behavior, including, where we live, what we do for a living, and what services we have access to make up 60% of our health. Clinical advice when combined with focus on individual behavior and social factors can result in superior health outcomes.

Industries that have matured on managing customer satisfaction, like airlines or retail, understand that expectations around service quality, delivered quality and communication are key drivers of consumer satisfaction.  One mantra that has become universal is - small variations in delivered quality can result in significant differences in satisfaction/complaints, depending on how expectations and communication are managed. 

In healthcare, the availability of new data sets (variety) and the pace at which the data changes (velocity) is driving the rapid adoption of Big Data techniques.  New data sets from social patient reviews, physician payments, sensor/ personal medical devices, and patient behavior are leading the change.