The Oura Ring is one of the most accurate wearable devices for tracking biometrics related to sleep, recovery, movement, and overall wellness. To follow are the various steps you and the patient will need to take to add the Oura Ring to your patient’s portal.
Connecting the Oura Ring to the Oura Application
The first thing the patient will need to do once they receive their Oura Ring is download and connect the ring to the Oura application (IOS or Android). Please see Get Started with Oura for step-by-step instructions.
Connecting Oura Rings to Heads Up Platform
Heads Up pulls the patient’s Oura data from the Oura cloud. The patient’s data is sent to the Oura cloud after the patient first opens the Oura application after awakening. The Oura ring will sync to the Oura cloud each time it is opened during the day.
Next, you will need to make sure your patient’s Oura ring is connected to Heads Up. The patient can connect Oura via the Heads Up mobile or web application.
Once connected, you should see the patient’s Oura ring data on Heads Up. If the Oura ring data is not up to date for any reason, then you should ask the patient to force a manual backup of their Oura ring data to the Oura cloud using the below instructions:
1. Ensure WiFi or cellular data is enabled.
2. Go to the menu on the Home tab.
3. Tap Settings .
4. Below Account, tap ‘Back up all data.’
Interpreting the Oura Ring data
Oura rings collect and shares a lot of data. Below are a few of the metrics you should focus on.
There is a modern-day misconception about the importance of sleep. We’ve convinced ourselves that anything else is more productive and frequently hear the expression “you can sleep when you’re dead.”
Recently though, sleep science has been gathering steam and proving what should have been intuitive all along: that our bodies didn’t evolve to waste time. Sleep is central to health and performance. Although we remember little from our time asleep, our brains are firing and our bodies are actively repairing. During sleep, the brain consolidates memories and removes toxins, while the body stokes the immune system and regulates metabolism.
The sleep hygiene movement is starting to have a social impact and people are waking up to the importance of investing in sleep. If you want to take better care of yourself, start by making your sleep a priority.
The research is clear that adults should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. This range of sleep hours is based on years of research and is the standard set by the National Sleep Foundation. It’s been determined that chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a dramatic increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease and lead to weight gain, in addition to other health issues.
Another important aspect of sleep that can help maintain optimal health and performance is sleep consistency. Ensuring consistency in your bedtime and waking time can make a world of difference. For example, going to bed early and waking up early during workdays can help improve productivity throughout the week.
Some individuals will wake up tired despite sleeping the appropriate number of hours due to restless sleep. Sleep Disturbances caused by wake-ups, get-ups, and restless time during your sleep can have a big impact on sleep quality and daytime cognitive performance. Restless sleep is less restorative than uninterrupted sleep and it is usually the cause of daytime sleepiness.
Disturbances can be caused by various factors, such as stress, noise, partners, pets, or different foods. Here are a few tips to improve your chances of getting restful sleep:
Optimize your sleep environment by making sure your mattress is comfortable and your bedroom is cool (~ 65℉/18℃), quiet, and dark.
Avoid spicy, heavy meals, and alcohol close to bedtime.
Avoid caffeine prior to bedtime and late in the afternoons.
While regular physical activity can make your sleep more restful, try to avoid exercising at least 1-2 hrs before your normal bedtime.
Help your brain and body to wind down by disconnecting from bright screens and dimming bright lights 1-2 hrs before going to sleep.
From a circadian biology perspective, your day begins when you go to sleep each evening. Sleep allows the human body to recover from the physical and mental demands of the day. There are a number of metrics related to recovery, such as Resting Heart Rate (RHR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV).
Resting Heart Rate captures the number of times your heart beats per minute while at rest. An abnormally high or low resting heart rate may mean you’re overly stressed and not getting enough rest, or perhaps your immune system is fighting something.
Heart Rate Variability refers to the constant variation in milliseconds between your heartbeats. As popular as the metaphor may be, a healthy heart doesn’t beat as regularly as a metronome—it changes its rhythm with each beat. Some situations increase variation (high HRV), while others cause the intervals between beats to remain constant (low HRV).
You may be unaware of these subtle variations, but they reflect your heart’s ability to respond to different situations. HRV can react to stress and/or illness before resting heart rate (RHR), which makes it one of your body’s most powerful signals—providing useful insights into your stress levels, recovery status, and general well-being. As a rule of thumb, high HRV is associated with rest-and-digest, general fitness, and good recovery, while low HRV is associated with fight-or-flight, stress, illness, or overtraining.
While individual days may be lower after high-intensity exercise, a night out, or a stressful day, if your recent HRV is on par with or better than your average, it’s a sign of good recovery. Monitoring HRV trends with an Oura Ring shows whether you are adapting or not to the “load” you are exposed to. This load could be new medications or treatment plans, or an increase in training load.
Body temperature is a key signal, as your body constantly generates and sheds heat to hover around your ideal temperature. This metric can act as a warning, signaling cold or broader health development like hormonal fluctuations. Very few wearables track this metric. One exception is the Oura Ring, which monitors your skin temperature while you sleep. This form of measurement is very close to your core temperature only while you are sleeping. You can also use one of the many digital thermometers to check your temperature right after you get out of bed.
Sitting is considered by many to be the new smoking due to the rising evidence that prolonged sitting can contribute to a range of diseases and conditions including:
Cardiovascular disease
Type 2 Diabetes
Anxiety and depression
Obesity
Elevated blood pressure
Higher cholesterol
The human body performs better with regular movement throughout the day. Even standing up once every hour and stretching or doing a few jumping jacks can bring enormous health benefits.
He was a man in his late 50’s. His brother, 63 years old, recently had a heart attack that scared the whole family.
Thankfully, his brother got medical attention quickly. After a trip to the cath lab and a few stents, he’s been recovering well at home, all things considered.
But the experience was a wake-up call for Daniel.
Not only did he almost lose his brother, but his mom also passed at a young age from heart disease. He knew heart disease sometimes has a genetic component. With what happened to his mom and his brother, he knew he needed to get his heart health checked out. … And he’d be the first to admit that he hadn’t seen his primary in years.
But he had three kids at home. He had a wife. They all depended on him.
So he made an appointment with his physician. And sure enough, Daniel had pretty significant undiagnosed hypertension.
After a three-minute talk with his doctor where he was too stunned to begin formulating questions, he walked out of the office with a new prescription in hand.
But later, the questions flooded his head:
Was taking medicine just a part of his everyday life now?
Is there any way to lose weight, adjust diet, or exercise to decrease the dosage of medication needed?
What are the common side effects to look out for?
Is medicine the only way to treat hypertension?
He felt helpless and confused. All he knew was that he needed to take care of his cardiac health for the sake of his family. So despite his questions, he religiously took his meds. And thankfully he did start seeing blood pressures in the healthy range.
If you’ve been a physician or a medical provider for longer than a few years, I’m sure you’ve had a patient like Daniel. While he did get the care he needed, there are definitely some gaps in the process.
If you’re looking for a way to fill in those gaps and holistically care for your patients, implementing the connected health model could be the game-changer you’re looking for.
Here at Heads Up Health, we’re passionate about helping you help your patients. Which is why we’re also passionate about connected health. Let’s dig into exactly what connected health is, how it can help your patients, and how we’ve integrated it into our technology.
Why did you first decide to open your own practice?
Maybe you wished you could do more for your patients… but you only had so much time to see so many patients.
Maybe your patient list was too long to remember each one… but you want to care for your patients on a personal level.
Or maybe… you became frustrated with how disconnected traditional healthcare can be.
Regardless of your reason, you made the choice to practice medicine in a way that feels more comprehensive and gives you more time with each patient. And that is so important to the patients you care for. This is why the connected health model could help you help your patients even more.
But what exactly does “connected health” mean? If you searched online for the term, you’d probably get at least 5 different definitions. And it’s hard to pin down an exact explanation, because it’s more of an attitude or frame of mind around healthcare. ¹
Basically, the idea of connected health is that the patient should be connected to their clinicians, and clinicians should be connected to each other, all keeping the patient’s health at the center.¹ Wellness and preventative medicine is highly emphasized in this model, as well as the clinicians meeting the patient where they are on a continuum of care.¹ In the connected health model, the patient is an active participant in their health plan.²
The term “connected health” is often used within the context of “telehealth” or “health technology.” While practices implementing connected health don’t necessarily need to be using technology to keep everyone connected, tech and telehealth companies have stepped up to help in a major way.²
Heads Up Health Gives You a Connected Health Platform for Your Practice
Heads Up Health is a company that uses technology to collect data from:
Clinically validated wearable devices
smart watches
health apps
lab results
remote patient monitoring devices, such as blood glucose monitors and blood pressure monitors
After collecting the raw data, it’s formatted and organized so you can easily analyze, make improved clinical decisions, and avoid medical errors. The more you know about your patients’ day to day health, the better you’re able to treat them. That’s why the data that’s extracted and organized by Heads of Health is so valuable. Plus, all of that data is displayed beautifully and clearly in one user-friendly platform.
4 Major Ways Connected Health Through Heads Up Health Benefits Your Patients
The connected health technology Heads Up Health provides not only makes your life easier, but it helps you deliver real results to your patients. Let’s dig into specific ways connected health through Heads Up Health can improve outcomes for your patients.
It’s simple to use.³
Not only is the data clear and easy for you to use, it’s also easy for the patient to collect. In most cases, participation from the patient is nearly effortless. Often they simply wear a monitor, a smart watch, or click a few buttons in an app. Since most of us have our smartphones and smart watches on anyways, often these types of monitors and devices don’t disrupt our routines, which makes the data easy to obtain, reliable, and consistent.³
There are fewer errors, and the accuracy of health trends are better than ever.⁴
The numbers collected from medical devices and smart devices tend to be much more accurate than self reported data.⁴ More accurate data results in more accurate diagnosis, and more appropriate interventions. It’s human nature to want to fudge the numbers on a medical form, or to forget to log a check on your blood glucose log. But with all that automated, the data is comprehensive and accurate. This gives you a realistic picture of the illness and a clear view of what next steps to take.
Allows for more thorough monitoring of chronic diseases.
Because of the accuracy and consistency of the data collected through Heads Up Health, the way you monitor chronic diseases could totally change for the better. If your patients are forgetful or inconsistent in the past with self monitoring, this is a great option for them.
As discussed above, remote monitoring takes so little effort on the part of the patient that collecting the data is easy for your patients.
Because of this, you’ll have the data you need to catch dangerous data trends before they turn into a hospital visit.⁴ In fact, one study showed that cardiac patients who received alerts to an app about their condition had a 16% decrease in overall hospital admissions.⁵
The ability to more tightly manage chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease could add years to your patients’ lives, save them thousands of dollars in hospital visits, and improve their quality of life for years to come.
Plus, many patients enjoy following along and seeing how their numbers trend. This encourages active interest and participation from the patient.³
Remote patient monitoring makes care more accessible and often more affordable.
Remote patient monitoring through Heads Up Health brings healthcare specialists to remote areas where patients might not have care locally. This is a game-changer for individuals living in rural communities and less access to care.⁵ Since a patient can be virtually monitored from anywhere, this aspect of connected health truly connects patients to the care they need.³
Remote patient monitoring tends to be affordable for both the practice and the patient, breaking down some of the financial barriers to patients.⁷ Additionally, remote patient monitoring is reimbursable through health insurance, making it a win-win for everyone. Even cash-based practices have started moving to the payer system for RPM services due to the revenue generating opportunity.
About 60% of all healthcare organizations already use some type of connected health technology, and it’s easy to see why.⁶ It’s easy to use, has less errors, improves patient outcomes, and is highly accessible.
At Heads Up Health, We’re Passionate About Using Connected Health to Bring You Closer to Your Patients
Remember Daniel from the opening story? At Heads Up Health, we use connected health to help patients just like him by:
Makes connecting with your patients easy with our beautiful, efficient platform. Patient data is securely organized and succinct. This means your time with your patient can be spent educating and addressing concerns, instead of trying to make sense of the numbers.
(The system can even be branded to your practice as well!)
Providing you with effortless, pertinent data and trends. Changes in therapy are easy to assess. So if Daniel was your patient and lived in a rural area, you could potentially lower his medication dose, knowing that you can regularly track his blood pressure monitor to see if he’s tolerating the change.
Making compliance simple and encouraging patient participation. The simpler a tool is to use, the more likely a patient will use it. Since the remote patient monitoring features require little work from the patient, patient compliance is improved. Plus, patients often are interested in tracking their own health trends through the platform, encouraging the patient to be an active participant in their health plan.
If you would like to get started leveraging the Heads Up connected health intelligence platform in your practice, click here to register for your free account.
After registering you will get an opportunity to schedule with a Heads Up Data Architect to help you with setting up the Heads Up Connected Health Platform to get the most out of it for your unique practice.
Ciba Health is a tech-forward virtual chronic disease reversal platform successfully leveraging Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) for their Type 2 Diabetes Reversal program.
The Ciba RPM program leverages a multidisciplinary team of physicians, dietitians, and health coaches for patient engagement, goal setting, lifestyle modification, and running the day-to-day operations of the RPM program.
The RPM program has created new revenue opportunities for Ciba Health inside the payer system, delivered quantified improvements in patient outcomes, and has positioned Ciba Health as a category-leading integrative practice with sophisticated RPM capabilities.
Ciba has selected Heads Up as the software platform for their RPM program. The Heads Up dashboard integrates seamlessly into the Ciba Health EHR system to facilitate data aggregation, analysis, alerting, reporting, RPM billing, and much more.
About Ciba Health
Ciba Health was founded in late 2019 by Dr. Innocent Clement, a trained physician, and former CEO and Co-Founder of Kaia Health Inc., a digital therapeutic company. The formation of Ciba Health was a response to the pitfalls of the conventional medical model, and an understanding that holistic, patient-centric care was essential for patient health.
Ciba Health is powered by the mission to provide better healthcare by researching the unique biochemistry of every patient, offering tools to practice better self-care, preventing diseases, and encouraging people to live their life to their fullest. Personalize, prevent, and educate—that’s the Ciba Health motto for creating healthcare that truly cares.
Ciba offers programs in Advanced Primary Care, Type 2 Diabetes Reversal and Depression & Anxiety Breakthrough and Digestive Health
Remote Patient Monitoring Overview
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is a system in which digital technologies are used to monitor and capture physiological data from patients at home. The data is monitored and reviewed by healthcare providers for personalized patient care.
Clinics and providers that use RPM can bill and submit claims for RPM services to healthcare payer systems through the use of CPT codes.
These codes assist in healthcare documentation and can be used for processing claims and billing, reporting medical procedures and services, and evaluating the utilization of healthcare services.
The primary CPT codes used for Remote Patient Monitoring include the following:
CPT Code 99453: the initial patient education on the medical device and training on the proper use
CPT Code 99454: the monthly remote monitoring of physiological parameters by wearable devices, includes provision and programming of device
CPT Code 99457: monthly billing for care management and coordination, requiring 20 minutes of interactive virtual care
CPT Code 99458: billing for additional time spent with the patient beyond the initial 20 minutes, billed in 20-minute increments
Business Challenges
Heads Up worked with Ciba Health to create a Remote Patient Monitoring platform to address their unique challenges:
Device data fragmentation
The Ciba RPM program leverages best-in-class devices (Libre, Oura, and Withings). Ciba Health needed a solution to seamlessly integrate data from multiple devices onto centralized dashboards for both patients and providers.
Diagnostic lab testing
In addition to integrating device data, Ciba Health needed an RPM platform that could also track lab tests including lipid panels, metabolic markers (Hba1c), functional diagnostic testing (Great Plains, Dutch, etc.), and much more.
EHR integration & white-label ready
Ciba Health needed an RPM solution that could integrate directly with their EHR system to simplify the user experience for both patients and providers. As part of the integrated solution, Ciba wanted to use their own branding on the patient-facing dashboard.
Advanced analytics
Ciba Health needed a platform with the analytics capabilities for their data science team to measure outcomes across their entire Type 2 Diabetes Reversal program.
Patient engagement
Ciba Health leverages FMCA health coaches for patient engagement. They needed an RPM platform that could integrate health coaching with biometric data from the devices as part of their RPM patient engagement strategy.
Lifestyle medicine
Ciba Health needed an RPM solution that would enable monitoring lifestyle factors including diet, sleep, stress, and exercise. Visibility into these lifestyle factors is a key part of Ciba’s holistic approach to Type 2 Diabetes Management.
Increase revenue
Ciba Health was seeking to explore revenue opportunities that rely on tracking RPM billing eligibility for each CPT code and export data in a customized format for their billing team.
Technology Solution
Heads Up was selected as the technology vendor to meet both Ciba Health’s business and practice needs for their RPM solution.
Customized Dashboards
Heads Up created a dashboard to integrate all of the devices and data required for the RPM program. Libre, Withings, and Oura all seamlessly integrate into a single view for patients and providers.
Integrated Lab Testing
Ciba Health uses a combination of conventional lab testing (Hba1c, lipid panels etc.) and functional diagnostic testing. The RPM portal was also configured with the ability to track diagnostic lab testing alongside the device data.
EHR Integration
The dashboard was directly embedded into the Ciba Health EHR system and uses single-sign-on (SSO) for a seamless user experience.
Advanced Analytics
Customized data exports are delivered each month to the Ciba data science team. Outcomes can be analyzed across the entire patient base. As the data set grows, Ciba can start to apply machine learning and AI to learn more about how their programs are performing.
Customized Billing Reports
Customized reports are delivered to Ciba throughout each calendar month. These reports help determine where there are clinically relevant RPM related billing opportunities each month.
Train Health Coaches
Consistent with their high standards as a virtual functional medicine practice, Ciba Health hired health coaches certified by the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA).
The FCMA health coaching program is considered a gold standard in functional medicine, and is the only program designed and delivered in collaboration with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM).
These coaches were then trained through the Heads Up University RPM Certification Course for health coaches. This program consists of seven video modules and additional resources that cover how to get started with RPM, coding and billing, medical protocols, and legal considerations for RPM.
As a result of this training, the Ciba Health coaches are better equipped to manage the day-to-day of the RPM programs and can use the incoming data as opportunities to check-in with patients.
Business Outcomes
Using the remote monitoring solution created by Heads Up, Ciba Health was able to achieve the following outcomes.
Increased Revenue
Ciba Health has enrolled in the payer system and is now generating claims revenue for their RPM services. With a proven RPM solution in place, Ciba Health is preparing to scale their RPM revenue as they bring on new clients.
Improved Outcomes
Using the data generated from their RPM program, Ciba Health is able to quantify outcomes both at the individual level and at the cohort level to validate their program’s efficacy.
These outcomes are published on their website and used in other outbound communications.
Testimonials From Patients About Ciba’s Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Program
“Last A1C check was 5.3, a non diabetic level. The lowest it’s been in 3 years!”
Natasha
“Sleeping more. Comfortable working with coach. A great experience!”
Aaron
“The most exciting thing over time was my bloodwork. My A1C was down to 5.3. That was a huge confirmation!”
Dwight
“My health coach is excellent. Very supportive. A delight to work with. This is better than going to a traditional medicine doctor.”
Bernadette
Increased engagement
Instead of waiting several months between doctor visits and conventional lab test results, Ciba health coaches and providers can use patient-generated data for real-time biofeedback.
Data from the devices creates new opportunities for Ciba Health coaches to engage patients and guide them toward health lifestyle modification.
Additionally, patients learn to use the data from the devices themselves to make healthy corrections to diet and lifestyle.
Summary
Ciba Health has developed an industry-leading Remote Patient Monitoring program for Type 2 Diabetes built on the Heads Up connected care platform.
The program integrates the latest digital health devices from Oura, Abbott (Freestyle Libre) and Withings combined with diagnostic lab testing.
FMCA-certified health coaches are trained to manage the RPM program and integrate biometric data into patient coaching.
Ciba Health is leveraging objective clinical and lifestyle data to study outcomes as their programs scales.
Lastly, new revenue streams are now available to Ciba as Remote Patient Monitoring continues to expand.
Interested in exploring a custom-built program for your practice?
GladdMD is an Indiana-based integrative practice that sees clients both in-person and remotely from all over the world. They rely heavily on their relationships with patients and aim to partner with them on their journey to optimal health.
GladdMD was founded in 2010 and is headed up by Dr. Jeff Gladd, a physician entrepreneur and sought-after expert who turned to integrative medicine after his own health journey and education through the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine fellowship. GladdMD provides a holistic approach to patient health blending conventional and functional approaches with a customized diet, nutrition, and lifestyle interventions.
GladdMD runs a number of different health optimization programs with their clients. These programs are offered virtually with one-on-one consultations and group visits.
By adding a remote monitoring component to their ketogenic weight loss program, GladdMD was seeking to address a number of challenges:
Without an easy way to monitor glucose and ketone readings on a daily basis, it was difficult for GladdMD clients to objectively verify if clients were in ketosis.
With no solution for remote data collection, it was challenging for GladdMD to personalize the program for each client.
Without a centralized dashboard, tracking weight loss outcomes at the individual and cohort level was challenging and relied on self-reports from users, spreadsheets and other cumbersome tools.
For clients who have out-of-network health insurance coverage, providing super bills for reimbursement would allow GladdMD to help clients offset the cost of the program and scale the program to more clients
Technology solution: Heads Up & Keto-Mojo
The goal for Heads Up was to create a technology solution for GladdMD to support their unique needs. Heads Up created a custom, centralized dashboard to improve quality of client data tracking and health program personalization.
In addition to this, Keto Mojo, the glucose and ketone meter used by GladdMD for their ketogenic weight loss program is able to be easily integrated into the Heads Up software.
Remote Patient Monitoring Solution
One of the main challenges that GladdMD faced in their ketogenic weight loss program was accurate and easy monitoring of glucose and ketone readings for their clients.
Using Heads Up’s wearable integration technology, GladdMD can easily access daily readings from the Keto Mojo wearable, verify the state of ketosis, and improve the efficiency of program personalization.
Additional Lifestyle Data from Other Wearables
Heads Up technology allows for data integration from a number of premium digital health devices and apps. This added value to coaching sessions and doctor’s visits by allowing providers to see additional data on physical activity, sleep, and nutrition.
In turn, GladdMD providers are able to better gauge client motivation for change, target lifestyle areas for improvement, and help clients understand physiological responses beyond weight loss.
Client Dashboard Customization
Heads Up built a custom client dashboard for GladdMD’s ketogenic weight loss program. This led to increased client motivation and empowerment due to patients being able to see real-time results from following the program.
To improve brand recognition, Heads Up created a custom dashboard with GladdMD branding.
Health Coach Dashboard
The health coach dashboard built by Heads Up improved the efficiency of monitoring client data remotely. Because all of the client data is centralized, providers are able to spend more time clients focusing on interventions instead of data review.
Patient Engagement Tools
Heads Up provides several tools to improve communication and tracking of client outcomes. GladdMD utilizes the platform’s HIPAA-compliant secure messaging, monthly progress reports and other tools for increased patient engagement and retention.
Super bill for clients who can submit for out-of-network coverage.
Leveraging a Health Coach for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
Combining a health coach with RPM is a powerful combination. Health coaches are trained experts in patient engagement and the data from remote devices provides abundant opportunity for coaches to engage, educate and empower clients on their journey to optimal health.
The health coach at GladdMD, Marina Arambula, runs the ketogenic therapy program on a day-to-day basis. Marina works with clients remotely to onboard them onto the Heads Up platform, connect their Keto-Mojo device and educate clients on how to start measuring glucose and ketones daily.
“Using the Heads Up dashboard has been transformational for my coaching. With these additional tools, I have been able to help clients understand the importance of metabolic health and approach being healthy in a holistic manner.”
– Marina, GladdMD Health Coach
Business Outcomes
Using the remote monitoring solution with Heads Up and Keto-Mojo, GladdMD was able to achieve the following outcomes:
Increased efficiency for the practitioner
Heads Up technology is able to centralize data collection and create reports to track client outcomes. Use of these tools has improved GladdMD’s data organization and allowed more targeted interventions to shorten time frames for client outcomes.
Health coach is able to communicate more frequently with doctors about client updates, which reduces time spent on reviewing client histor
Increased patient engagement and retentions
Through the Heads Up platform, GladdMD health coaches have increased communication with clients. These clients develop a deeper relationship with the practice not only with communication with providers, but by seeing visualized data of program progress and success. These features have improved client retention.
Increased revenue for the practice
GladdMD is able to reduce program costs through increased efficiency of data collection and interpretation by providers.
Clients using the dashboard created by Heads Up were able to see reports and visualization of health outcome progress, which led to additional services, increased follow ups
Improved client retention and faster program outcomes increases client trust in GladdMD services. Clients increase new client acquisition by organic word-of-mouth about their successes with GladdMD’s health optimization programs.
Clients who have been long-term users of GladdMD services have also seen benefits from the remote patient monitoring made possible by Heads Up technology.
One client thought that, prior to using the Heads Up platform, she was following the protocol for GladdMD’s ketogenic weight-loss program. She had some success with weight loss, but her health was not being optimized.
After adding Heads Up to her care, the health coach and client were able to see objective data showing that the patient was not following protocols as well as she originally thought. With the help of the health coach and ongoing data monitoring, the client was able to course-correct her actions and have significant improvements in weight loss.
Conclusion
GladdMD is an integrative practice dedicated to helping patients achieve optimal health through nutrition and lifestyle interventions. Heads Up helped bring remote patient monitoring in GladdMD’s ketogenic weight loss program to life.
To address their issues of centralized data collection, easy client health outcome tracking, and daily lab monitoring, Heads Up created a seamless user experience for both clients and practitioners.
As a result, GladdMD experienced increased practitioner efficiency, increases in client engagement and retention, and overall increased practice revenue. Health coaches and practitioners with GladdMD are able to focus on tailoring program interventions to client needs, improve consistency of ketosis, and developing relationships with their clients.
Heads Up technology increases success for both practitioners and clients in healthcare delivery systems that use remote patient monitoring.
Interested in a custom data portal for your practice?
Schedule a session with one of our specialists to learn how to integrate Heads Up Health into your organization and demo the Heads Up platform.
Improving client retention and reducing attrition is a cornerstone of a successful practice in virtually any healthcare environment. Focusing on life time value (LTV) and facilitating client retention is one of the most powerful tools for building long term sustainability, particularly in the functional medicine space due to your unique business model needs.
Focusing on client retention is the best way to maximize lead generation and marketing efforts. With LTV calculated by multiplying the average value of the customer to the business by their average lifespan, it becomes far more cost effective to keep existing customers in your practice than to attract new ones. By fostering a long term relationship with your clients, you have the opportunity to achieve better health outcomes over time. Supporting clients long term helps ensure patient satisfaction and longevity for your practice.
But in a world where practitioners and clinics are often stretched thin, what is the best way to retain clients over time? Of course, providing excellent service is essential, but an often overlooked LTV strategy is facilitating patient engagement. Building engaged patients leads to better treatment outcomes, improved quality of care over their lifetime, and more a successful healthcare practice.
Patient engagement refers to involving patients in as many aspects of their own care as possible. The goal is to empower clients with knowledge and give them the tools to reach their health goals. Fortunately, the proliferation of wearable health technology and the unprecedented growth in telehealth now makes this easier than ever before and there is no better time than now to engage patients remotely.
Here are some strategies for fostering increased patient engagement and empowering patients along their health journey:
1- Focus on communication points between practitioner and patient
Like all relationships, the practitioner-patient connection must be nurtured to thrive. All too often, patients reach out to care providers only during an acute episode or the onset of a chronic or life-altering illness when urgent attention is needed. However, developing a system of communication that emphasizes proactive wellness builds engaged clients and a robust relationship that leads to long term patient retention.
While lack of communication can lead to patient indifference, ongoing contact helps to keep patients engaged and forward thinking about their health. In addition to ongoing communication regarding appointments, upcoming treatments, and wellness reminders, providing personalized, proactive outreach gives patients a meaningful connection to care providers. Providing patients with relevant health information makes clients feel acknowledged, giving them the sense that they can connect with their care providers openly, even outside a time of crisis.
2- Support patients over the lifetime of their health journey
With wellness at the forefront of people’s mind, perhaps more now than ever in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting patients in times of health, as well as times of illness is increasingly relevant for client retention. It is all too common that patient relationships come to the forefront only in the face of an acute episode or chronic illness. However, developing a proactive wellness strategy with healthy clients leads to a robust lifetime relationship.
Giving clients support through their health journey extends beyond treating symptoms and writing prescriptions. Supporting patients in a time of illness is essential, of course. However, beyond the reversal of chronic conditions, supporting patients through health maintenance and working towards health optimization, truly builds a long term relationship.
Cultivating relationships prior to an illness builds patient loyalty from the ground up. Having a strong relationship with clients when things are going well lets clients know they have you as an immediate ally if an issue should arise.
3- Empower clients to engage with their own health data
Contrary to the popular belief that wellness is in the hands of care providers, health is ultimately in the hands of the patient. With that in mind, there is no better client retention strategy than to empower your patients with access to their own health data. From the perspective of the practitioner, this means giving patients the tools to understand their data, sharing relevant knowledge, and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the patient.
To encourage consumers to have more agency in making decisions about their health, data needs to be transparent and actionable for the client. With more consumers using technology for health monitoring than ever before, both patients and practitioners have access to a host of real time data, generated by the patient and accessible by both the client and care provider.
The ultimate goal for both practitioners and patients is self-management, which both reduces costs and fosters a lifetime of wellness. Educating patients cultivates their curiosity and spurs engagement with their own health journey. Data becomes the tool for empowerment and connecting patients with their metrics gives them the opportunity to truly take their health into their own hands.
Heads Up Health is one such solution that displays data for clear interpretation for both providers and clients. Data from health and wellness devices is elegantly showcased on the client-facing dashboard, making it easy for clients to monitor their own progress. The Heads Up practitioner portal allows for real-time access to health metrics from clients and serves as the touchpoint for communication for telemedicine practices and remote health coaches alike. Heads Up puts data in context, giving providers the tool they need to amplify patient engagement for a lifetime of wellness.
Conclusions
By improving the patient experience and clinician workflow, you will increase LTV and improve client retention. Satisfied patients generally stick with their current healthcare provider for longer and client retention is one of the most powerful tools for building long term sustainability for healthcare practices.
Facilitating patient engagement through open communication, lifetime support, and the use of data leads to better treatment outcomes, improved quality of care, and a more successful healthcare practice. With patients involved in as many aspects of their own care as possible, engaged clients become empowered clients who tend to stick with their care providers long term.
About Heads Up
Heads Up Health is a seed-stage technology company based in Scottsdale, AZ. They are engineering an entirely new approach to personalized health by integrating clinical, lifestyle, nutritional, and self-collected data with personalized analytics and insights.
Podium Sports Medicine provides progressive, data-driven medical care and performance advice to clients with a keen interest in health and vitality. With a specialized clientele comprised primarily of professional and highly competitive recreational athletes, Podium Sports Medicine focuses on individualized performance training using cutting-edge technology.
Founded by Dr. Kevin Sprouse, Podium Sports Medicine takes a uniquely evidence-informed approach to disease prevention and health optimization. Using state-of-the-art technology to track all aspects of fitness, including metabolic health, sleep, nutrition, and wellness, Podium creates fine-tuned health programming to meet their clients’ needs.
When Dr. Sprouse discovered Heads Up (HU), the industry-leading health tracking platform, he found the perfect solution for his data-driven clinic. HU created a custom dashboard for Podium that includes custom lab results, real-time health tracking, and tools for quantifying Podium’s client performance.
“What I love most about Heads Up is how malleable it is to the practice,” says Dr. Kevin Sprouse of Podium Sports Medicine, “Heads Up gives us a high level view of the patients and then we can zoom in on individual markers and take a dive deep as needed.”
If you run a health practice and are interested in a comprehensive remote data monitoring system, reach out to our New Accounts team at Heads Up here.
Business Challenge
With clients all across the country, Podium Sports Medicine uses telemedicine and technology to remotely monitor their clients and maintain open and attentive communication. Podium tailors their programming specifically to client ambitions and needed a comprehensive system for real time monitoring.
Podium uses a variety of state-of-the-art technology and health wearables to continually assess client data and monitor trends over time. After years of using traditional spreadsheet methods of tracking, they needed a more dynamic system to observe and interpret a broad range of health metrics to modulate treatments quickly and better serve their clients.
Technology Solution
When Dr. Sprouse approached Heads Up almost two years ago, he needed a tool that would allow him to monitor a variety of clients data and labs remotely. The goal for Heads Up was to create a comprehensive solution to meet Podium Sports Medicine’s diverse needs for their high performance client base.
HU designed a custom dashboard that integrates with Podium’s smart devices that can be tailored specifically to each client, allowing Dr. Sprouse and his team to focus on each individual’s most crucial metrics. Additionally, HU integrates with Podium’s periodic lab testing and seamlessly adds data from diagnostics labs across the county giving them insight into patient health, no matter where the client is located.
“I’m truly impressed with how far Heads Up has come and where it is going. It’s a remarkable tool right now and they’re constantly evolving, adding new features and integrations,” said Dr. Sprouse. “I’m confident that Heads Up will be the data tool that I’ll use for years to come.”
Custom Lab Results
Podium Sports Medicine prescribes comprehensive blood work panels to monitor client health. With remote lab data coming in from all over the country, practitioners at Podium use Heads Up to monitor health metrics over time, creating a long term record of clinical markers.
Heads Up allows Podium full control over their health data with custom reference ranges and data specific to each patient. All of this is centrally managed for each client in the HU practitioner portal, giving Podium a powerful solution for remote monitoring patients.
High Performance Custom Dashboard
Podium Sports Medicine focuses on individual goals and biometrics to tailor protocols specifically to their clients’ ambitions. With a focus on performance results and overall wellness, Podium Sports Medicine monitors a unique range of metrics using the Heads Up custom dashboard.
“When I come into the office first thing in the morning, I open Heads Up to see how my patients are doing,” said Dr. Sprouse, “first and foremost, I look to see if they are healthy and if they are meeting their metrics.”
Heads Up’s custom practitioner portal gives Podium an instant overview of key health indicators:
Temperature Deviation
Podium is focused on disease prevention and when a client deviates from their normal temperature patterns by 0.6° to 0.8°, it can be an early marker of illness. Podium sees this as a particularly important metric during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Podium finds that their athletes perform best when HRV is optimized. Related to the autonomic nervous system, monitoring HRV is an effective way of estimating clients’ heart activity as an indicator of stress and recovery.
Sleep Metrics
Using the Oura Ring, Podium monitors all aspects of sleep with a particular focus on deep sleep as it relates to recovery. During the deep sleep phase, blood flow to the muscles is increased, growth hormone is released, and cellular repair occurs.
Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
Variations in RHR may be a sign of excessive stress on the body from training or other lifestyle related fatigue and serves as a metric of recovery.
Sleep and Performance
“Sleep and HRV have become powerful tools now that we have the technology to measure them easily,” said Dr. Sprouse. By using Heads Up’s integration with Oura Ring, Podium works with their clients to develop healthy sleep and recovery routines. “I almost found it hard to believe how closely linked HRV, sleep, and performance were related.”
“With Heads Up, our clients see their sleep metrics day by day, but I’m paying attention to the trends.” The Heads Up reporting features allow Dr. Sprouse to use his data-driven system of “try, measure, and try again.” By monitoring patent data in the HU dashboard, “we run trends over time looking at the high level metrics across the board. Based on that, we might set some parameters like bedtime alarms or wind down routines that we test for 6 weeks while implementing a sleep hygiene routine.”
Conclusions
Podium Sports Medicine is committed to providing progressive medical care and performance support to their clients. Dr. Sprouse and his team use Heads Up to support their uniquely evidence-informed approach to disease prevention and health optimization. The Heads Up platform is the perfect solution for data-driven health practitioners, providing real-time tracking and the tools needed for quantifying client performance.
Interested in a custom data portal for your practice? Click here to learn more about the Heads Up Performance Platform and try it out for free.
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