Why the future of healthcare should start at the digital front door
This gateway technology lays the foundation for organizations working toward a future of identity-based care and improves patients’ experience and outcomes.
The Institute of Healthcare Improvement introduced its "Triple Aim” approach to optimizing health system performance for the first time in 2007. More than a decade later, that initiative has become the “Quintuple Aim,” identifying five measurable dimensions of performance – population health, patient experience, per capita cost of care, clinician well-being and health equity.
How can healthcare organizations, payers, government leaders and their teams execute the Quintuple Aim? With my experience in technology, specifically identity management, I believe the answer is clear – invest in digital front door (DFD) transformation.
Narrowing the definition
The digital front door is a healthcare engagement strategy that arranges touchpoints around the patient at a single, central point of access. This enables a unified log-in for seamless, secure movement across applications anytime and anywhere, and from any device.
But the value we find in the digital front door isn’t limited to today’s capabilities. More importantly, digital front door technology lays the foundation for organizations working toward a future of identity-based care.
Identity-based care is a proactive, holistic approach to healthcare, enabled by an ongoing, digitally informed relationship between patient and provider. Data gathering tools optimized by the digital front door infrastructure are what will push medical advancements in the direction of identity-based care capabilities like point of care, telehealth and value-based care to name only a few.
In light of that, the digital front door is a gateway technology; it is a necessary steppingstone for healthcare organizations to access tomorrow’s greatest technologies. Between today’s capabilities and tomorrow’s possibilities, the digital front door solution for healthcare speaks to each of the five initiatives outlined in the Quintuple Aim. Its ultimate value lies in improving patient outcomes.
Tackling the Quintuple Aim
So how does the digital front door help organizations in efforts to reach the Quintuple Aim? Here are some keys.
Population health. Where education and access to care represent major determinants in a population’s overall health, a digital front door meets patients where they are with personalized healthcare tools, resources and information. Additionally, the digital front door primes healthcare organizations to achieve a state of value-based care. Under the umbrella of identity-based care, this proactive approach to population health addresses patients’ overall well-being to prevent medical events before they occur.
Patient experience. This is perhaps one of the most enticing aspects of a digital front door transformation today. It affords patient users convenient, secure access to a wide range of touchpoints with a flexibility that empowers patients to engage regularly with their healthcare journey. When the login experience is as seamless as a digital front door makes it, patients aren’t deterred from accepting safe login features like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and password-less authentication.
Per capita cost of care. A rising tide lifts all boats; improving a population’s overall health reduces the cost of care for everyone. Put simply, identity-based care costs less. Continuous, life-long engagement with providers operating under a strategic vision of overall well-being will prevent major, expensive health events before they happen.
Clinician well-being. The digital front door translates to a well-connected care team with access to the tools, information and support they need to succeed. With a digital front door, patients become more self-sufficient, and workflows become streamlined and automated, meaning medically trained professionals aren’t relied upon for the logistical processes that support patient care. Matched with high visibility and privacy practices rooted in zero-trust, these changes to care team experience greatly improve clinician well-being.
Health equity. The digital front door lends itself to bettering health equity by meeting patients where they are. But there are other ways a digital front door transformation can promote health equity.
The CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE) describes health equity as the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to reach their fullest potential of health. According to the OHE, healthcare providers can promote health equity by collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data on all patients, taking background information into careful consideration, and educating staff on why race and ethnicity data is an important part of ensuring populations receive equitable access to care.
Just as the digital front door brings patients to the center of their available healthcare touchpoints, care team users enjoy central access to their resources. These include patient information and training tools, among countless others. As such, a digital front door gives healthcare organizations the power to standardize and streamline health equity training. It also gives providers a fuller picture of the resources a patient may or may not need to reach their fullest level of health and wellbeing.
The potential for improved outcomes
Patient experience. A seamless digital patient experience is enabled by customer identity and access management (CIAM) and workforce technology.
Preventative care. Identity-based care means a patient’s care experience doesn’t begin with a health crisis.
Patient loyalty. Providers attract and retain patients with a heightened sense of loyalty because of having an optimized patient experience. This is a highly attractive outcome for organizations looking for lifelong healthcare subscribers in an incredibly competitive healthcare space.
Healthcare education. Education is key to the preventative healthcare approach; the digital front door gives providers the outreach tools they need to reach patients with the knowledge they need to lead a healthy life.
Future-proof. Digital front door technology lays the foundation for identity-based care; it’s designed with consideration for future integrations like value-based care and point of care at the patient’s location.
Security and privacy. Identity and access management (IAM) technology secures patient, provider and organizational data for optimal security and privacy. These solutions are designed to deliver zero trust security to enhance customer experience and cybersecurity.
Quality of care. Patients enjoy optimized provider capabilities powered by user guidance and relevant data at every step. These features help professionals make efficient, informed decisions.
Reduced burden of care. Identity-based care addresses broad health concerns before they happen. Healthier populations worry less about the physical, emotional, mental and financial stressors related to caring for a family member in poor health.
Digital front door technology is an ideal way to help healthcare organizations, payers, government leaders and their teams execute the Quintuple Aim. This identity-driven solution addresses the Quintuple Aim exactly between its current and future capabilities.
From an experience standpoint, the digital front door approach creates a seamless, memorable care journey for patients and their providers. Logistically, the nature of the digital front door and its future of identity-based care will improve overall health, lower the cost of care and promote equity in the health space.
The more widespread the digital front door becomes, the closer we will come to a state of identity-based healthcare. Investing in a digital front door is essential for healthcare organizations to succeed in such a future.
Arun Shrestha is CEO and co-founder of BeyondID.