Choosing Which Vendor to Work With

Between start-ups and well-established companies, digital health tools are popping up from every corner. But how should health systems choose who to work with?

David Van Sickle is the CEO of Propeller Health, a digital health company which focuses on solutions to help patients address chronic conditions like asthma and COPD. At HLTH2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, he told Inside Digital Health™ about things to look for when selecting a company’s digital health solution to implement.

Editor’s note: This transcription has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

David Van Sickle: Definitely clinical evidence. Over the 10 years or so that Propeller has been in business, we've now published 25 peer reviewed papers that demonstrate that what we do for patients and their physicians can really help increase adherence, it can reduce symptoms, it can help keep people out of the emergency room of the hospital.

So, first and foremost, there has to be a strong clinical mechanism of action that has been proven across time and populations.

Second, there has to be an ability to scale the solution to not just the sickest of the sick, but also to a broader population. Make sure the digital you're really trying to put to work tools help change the whole face of the experience of asthma, COPD or other condition you're focused on, across as much of the distribution or the population as you can.

Those two things are probably what I'd start with and then consider how much fun the company is to work with. How challenging are they? How are they helping you apply digital and new ways to your patients and members?

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