Are you looking for ways to better enable the bariatric patient journey?
You have come to the right place. This guide lays out five digital tools that can increase bariatric patient enablement before and after surgery, improve health outcomes, save time and resources, cut back on costs, and boost your revenue.
Modern technologies hold more promise than you might think.
A recent meta-ethnographic systematic review in JMIR mHealth and uHealth – arguably the first of its kind – found that digital and mobile technologies can promote desirable behavioral changes in patients undergoing elective surgery by:
- Providing motivation and support
- Improving patient engagement
- Facilitating peer networking
- Meeting patients’ individual needs
Let us explore this in more depth.
Key Takeaways
- There is a correlation between patient preparedness and behavioral changes on the one hand and better surgical outcomes on the other.
- While patients understand the benefits of improved behaviors, lifestyle changes can be difficult to implement without intervention or support.
- Healthcare providers do not always offer adequate assistance. Elective care pathways still largely rely on in-person interventions that can be difficult to access due to travel costs, geographical isolation, or psychological barriers.
- Digital tools empower you to deliver behavioral change to support and improve bariatric patient enablement remotely without hiring new staff.
Why Digital Tools Better Enable the Bariatric Patient Journey
The JMIR mHealth and uHealth review above cites a growing body of research pointing to a strong correlation between physical and psychological patient preparedness and pre-and postoperative behavioral changes on the one hand and better surgical outcomes on the other.
Dietary improvements, increased physical activity, and smoking cessation may help:
- Speed up recovery
- Reduce the risk of complications
- Improve tolerance of postsurgical treatments
- Prevent long-term disease
While patients generally understand the benefits of improved behaviors, they often find it difficult to change what can be lifetime habits without intervention or support.
Unfortunately, the support healthcare providers offer is not always up to par. Elective care pathways still largely rely on face-to-face, in-person interventions. These approaches are time- and cost-intensive, depleting the resources of already overburdened practices.
Other factors such as travel costs and geographical isolation can also negatively affect patient engagement and attendance of pre-and postoperative appointments.
This is where digital tools come in. Integrating modern technologies into the bariatric patient journey empowers you to deliver behavioral change support remotely without dedicating additional resources or hiring new staff. In turn, this helps improve patient engagement, surgical outcomes, and your bottom line.
Optimize the Bariatric Patient Journey with These Digital Tools
To better support your patients in their bariatric journeys, consider adding the following technologies to your toolkit:
1. Mobile Apps and Wearable Activity Trackers
There was never a better time to introduce wearable devices and mobile apps into the bariatric patient journey.
Around 44% of U.S. adults already use health apps, and the national wearable technology market is looking at a 12.5% CAGR in 2021-2028 thanks to growing consumer demand.
As patients become more tech-savvy, use this as an opportunity to improve care and encourage them to track their weight loss, physical activity, nutrition, and water intake using digital tools.
According to the JMIR mHealth and uHealth review, this can:
- Improve communication between providers
- Facilitate patient connectivity with providers and peers
- Support remote health monitoring
- Motivate patients to play an active role in their long-term care
2. Online Forums and Peer-to-Peer Networks
Online forums may be underutilized tools with considerable potential for improving the bariatric patient journey.
A recent JMIR Perioperative Medicine review notes the links between social support and increased patient enablement, successful long-term weight maintenance, and improved quality of life and argues that online peer-support platforms could help patients by:
- Managing their expectations of life post-surgery
- Supporting information-seeking and decision-making
- Facilitating social and emotional support
- Enabling connectivity with healthcare providers
Interestingly, the review also notes that some patients reportedly do not see the value in postoperative clinics or are reluctant to talk about their bariatric journey in front of others. Online forums provide like-minded communities where such patients can receive and share information in a safe and judgment-free space.
3. Digital Food Scales
Postoperative bariatric patients can only have a limited amount of food at a time. However, old habits die hard, and portion sizes and calorie counts can be difficult to eyeball.
A digital food scale can help ensure patients do not ingest more food than they should. More advanced digital scales can also display helpful nutritional data, such as calorie counts and carbohydrates, fat, protein, fiber, cholesterol, and sodium content.
4. Telemedicine Technology
The authors of the JMIR mHealth and uHealth review also acknowledge the potential of two-way communication technologies to improve the bariatric patient journey. From virtual consultations to emails and secure text messaging, remote communication can help patients feel more reassured, accountable, and motivated to follow pre-and postoperative advice. Other benefits include:
- Improved information delivery and decision-making
- Real-time patient monitoring and goal setting
- Increased access to healthcare providers
- Provision of individualized advice
Communicating with healthcare professionals from the comfort of their own homes can also enable patients to overcome psychological barriers that prevent them from maximizing face-to-face appointments.
5. Care Automation Platforms
Care automation platforms like Wellbe’s ConnectedCare™ are among the most comprehensive and effective solutions for bariatric journey improvement on the market.
They provide patients with an easy-to-follow, automated guided workflow that simplifies and organizes the hundreds of steps they need to take before and after surgery into bite-sized to-do items. This helps:
- Boost patient engagement
- Ensure patients have the right information at the right time without getting overwhelmed
- Collect patient feedback and clinical data to create personalized care plans
- Optimize communications, automate data entry, and free resources to focus on growing your business
Optimize the Bariatric Patient Journey with Wellbe
The numbers speak for themselves. Bariatric practices that switch to ConnectedCare™ report:
- 1,600+ staff hours saved in paperwork
- 84% patient completion rate of assessment and outcome forms
- 98% of patients feel prepared for surgery
- 30% surgical growth rate in the first year
Empower your patients and grow your business with Wellbe.
The epitome of an entrepreneur, Mark has seen the peaks and valleys of starting, operating, and assuming the risks of a new venture. He’s come up against payroll, had a few bad hires, and even swept the floors early on. Collectively, Mark’s companies have done over $360 million in sales and raised more than $38 million in venture capital, and he has successfully bought and/or sold eight companies.
James believes technology, when creatively applied, can improve our life experiences. Intrigued by the amazing potential for internet and mobile technology to engage us all, James created a business model to reshape personal health management.
Mike Splinter, an electrical engineer and innovator, has played a major role in driving advances in the high tech industry, with more than four decades of executive leadership experience including 12 years with Applied Materials, Inc. where he was served as chairman and CEO, and over 20 years with Intel, where he was executive vice president of sales and marketing, and executive vice president of the Technology and Manufacturing Group.
Mr. Baldwin was most recently Chairman and CEO of Baxa Corporation, a leader in devices, systems, and software for the handling, packaging, and tracking of fluid medications in a critical care setting. Under his leadership from 1997 until its sale to Baxter Corporation in 2011, the company sales grew from $25 million to over $170 million. As CEO, he led the eight-member board of directors and led a minority recap resulting in Goldman Sach’s private equity group owning 27% of the company. He was also an early investor and lead director in Pharmacy OneSource, an innovative software-as-a-service business that had a successful exit in 2010.