Adaptive Communications

A multi-modal tool provides the ability to outsource the health care communications process.

By Robert N. Mitchell

Through a combination of decision-science methodologies and analytics with personalized technologies, a new approach is merging communications techniques from consumer industries with unique characteristics of health care to drive behaviors.

Through its Adaptive HealthComm Science communications tool, Silverlink Communications, a Burlington, Mass.-based health communications company, is helping health care organizations improve their communication programs' effectiveness and improving health plan member experiences. In doing so, they're driving down health care costs.

Silverlink's latest software release, SAVS 5.0, includes features such as on-call calculations and dynamic pathing for delivery of personalized, HIPAA-compliant and interactive communications programs.

The technology, which is available through two offerings — Silverlink's Benchmark and Paradigm Services — is a multi-modal communications tool that augments voice services, including e-mail, text messaging, fax and direct mail; it provides the ability to outsource the entire health care communications process.

"We've invested heavily in people, technology, processes and a methodology that continuously improves to maximize the effectiveness of health care communications," Stan Nowak, CEO and co-founder of Silverlink, said. "Over the next few years, changes in the way health care stakeholders communicate with patients and health plan members will be one of the keys to lowering health care costs while driving consumer affinity.

"To the consumer, health plan products are largely undifferentiated on the basis of benefits or network, and consumers experience their health plan almost exclusively through the communications they receive from the plan," Nowak continued. "Health care organizations have an opportunity to clearly differentiate themselves through proactive and personalized communications, improving their members' experiences with each interaction, and earning consumer trust and affinity. In essence, for health plans, communications is their product."

Consumer markets

Silverlink is mirroring other consumer markets and applying its concepts to the health care industry. For example, in the financial arena, consider the marketing push for consumers to get a new credit card or increase their credit line. In the hospitality industry, how do you manage the patron's experience so he or she will want to return?

"Health care is about getting people to be more compliant with their medications or other medical regimens, or replacing a prescription medication with a generic one. Communication also encourages health plan members to live healthier lifestyles. It's population health and population management," Nowak explained.

Adaptive HealthComm Science looks at microsegments of the member population to try different interventions with different populations — all standing against control groups and measurements of what works best. It then adapts, learns and tries again. "The communication system continually learns and automates its processes so that it is capturing new data and learning along the way from those interactions. It is consistent and can be measured.

"The delivery model is highly variable to systematically learn about behavior change. And, systematically you learn more about the population and what the appropriate segments are," Nowak said. "Do you use a family message for women aged 40-45? Is that the most effective way to drive a specific behavior? Behaviors can be about medication participation, childhood immunizations, etc."

This behavioral approach has been used successfully in other industries and has a place in health care, Nowak said, noting that Silverlink got its start in helping family caregivers manage seniors in their home.

Mr. Mitchell is managing editor of ADVANCE for Health Information Executives.