The Most Successful Business Model in Mobile Health: Insights from the 2015 U.S. mHealth Summit (Part III)

I. The Most Successful Business Models and Practices in Mobile and Telemedicine: The Walgreens Model

Anyone familiar with the business models of mobile and telemedicine in the United States is certainly aware of Walgreens’ successful commercialization strategy. But can its essence be learned and replicated? I forget which philosopher once offered this cautionary maxim: “People without cultural depth cannot create culturally enriched commercial service products.” This aligns precisely with the advice given by Charles Walgreen, founder of the Walgreens chain: “Treat every customer as a guest, ensuring they never forget our high-quality, meticulous, and thoughtful service. Encourage them to spread the word, telling everyone they know that Walgreens provides not just products, but the best possible service.” For those seeking to understand Walgreens’ mobile telemedicine model and keys to success, these principles can be summarized as follows:

1) Make services most accessible;

2) Make guests feel motivated;

3) The service must be effective.

Based on this concept,Walgreens’ customer-facing smartphone app is free of superfluous or ostentatious features, prioritizing simplicity and convenience. It supports health management and disease monitoring, while incorporating incentive mechanisms.Enable customers to earn rewards while paying for services—provided they maintain good health. Walgreens’ next step will focus on “connectivity and collaboration,” and it will continue to share and exchange its experiences in the coming year.

II. Intel’s Features in Mobile Health

Intel’s Global Health and Life Sciences Program characterizes mobile healthcare by “Personalization” and “Mobility.” This reflects Intel professionals’ insights into the definition of mHealth. What is the definition of mHealth? An Intel executive summarized it as follows:

1) Providing medical services through mobile communication devices;

2) Leverage mobile and wireless communication technologies to enhance the quality of health and medical services;

3) Leverage mobility to expand advantages and enhance health management methods;

4) Leverage mobile communication and network-based tools to implement electronic healthcare and health management;

5) Provide medical and health management services through mobile communication devices, such as smartphones.

It is evident that Intel believes nearly everyone in today’s global village is utilizing and enjoying the conveniences brought about by mobile technologies and smart communication devices. Meanwhile, Intel also holds that every individual’s activities within society occur across three dimensions: 1) thinking, 2) communication, and 3) mobility. To this end, Intel’s mobile health initiative has established a robust cloud-based database as its supporting infrastructure. Through predictive data analytics, patients and customers can more conveniently gain insights into their diseases and health status.

Intel’s key insight is that the world’s most burdensome disease is not cancer, but hypertension. Therefore, Intel’s mobile health solutions are designed to address the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension., for example: In the United States, only 40% of patients with hypertension are diagnosed, and among them, 50% adhere to medical advice for ongoing treatment, while some patients neither receive a diagnosis nor maintain treatment. How can we enable patients to treat hypertension at a cost of only a few cents, while preventing comorbidities or secondary complications?Intel’s proposed mobile solution is an implantable sensor (chip) that continuously records patients’ blood pressure fluctuations, reminds them to take their medications, and encourages healthy lifestyle habits.Intel Executive Summarizes the Uniqueness of Mobile Health: “Mobile” Means Wireless and Limitless. Mobile health tools should not constrain patients; rather, they should enhance patients’ mobility and minimize the need for extensive care of wearable devices. Implantable chip technology will be one of the future directions for wearable technology.



III. Rewarding Individuals with Strong Health Credibility

Dacadoo pioneered the Health Credit Score to assess and reward personal health management,This represents innovative thinking and practice in the field of mobile health. Typically, people are familiar with credit ratings for bank credit cards and mortgages; but would anyone be willing to rate their own health and use it as a creditworthiness indicator? It appears that mobile health makes all this possible!

As public health and healthcare costs in various countries rise at an uncontrollable pace, the root causes are none other than the growing population of individuals with chronic diseases and the accelerating pace of aging. Take the United States as an example: certain conditions, such as obesity, are manageable. Yet obesity has made the U.S. nearly the most obese country in the world. Government-funded research institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have done little to address this, continuing to adhere to traditional research models and methods. In contrast, mobile technologies and wearable devices have not only transformed people’s daily work and living environments but also reshaped consumption patterns, business activities, and educational experiences. Therefore, the integration of mobile technologies and intelligent tools into the healthcare and wellness sectors is already long overdue.

Today, an increasing number of health insurance providers are exploring and implementing mobile and telemedicine management models as one of their core strategies. Dacadoo’s founder candidly stated, “Everyone can equip themselves to become a ‘Wi-Bo’ (Wireless Body) individual. Wearable devices are already available on the market.”Therefore, the most effective “medicine” of the future will be health information and data, rather than pharmaceutical drugs. As long as everyone actively participates in and pays attention to their own health, shifting away from the passive stance of neglecting their physical condition, we will recognize that the “Health Credit Index” holds significant positive and constructive value.. Health credibility indicators are not only within one’s own control but can also be improved through personal efforts, thereby enhancing one’s credibility.Your physical activity, sensory perceptions, and physiological status constitute the core data underlying personal health credit metrics.In short, digitalization and mobile health are transforming our society and our lives, and will ultimately reshape the socioeconomic system, affecting every member of society. All of this is happening faster than you might imagine.

IV. Encourage innovation while strengthening regulation of mobile health and wearable devices

As a federal regulatory agency, the FDA encourages innovation and scientific exploration in any form, provided that “safety boundaries” are established in advance. The FDA’s fundamental requirement for mobile health and wearable devices involved in the diagnosis and treatment of clinical diseases is that safety and quality standards are equally important.Any mobile and wearable devices and mobile health solutions that involve disease diagnosis, auxiliary diagnosis, treatment, or adjuvant therapy must comply with relevant FDA regulatory requirements to ensure the accuracy of data and information, thereby preventing misleading information or errors for healthcare professionals and patients.

To this end, the FDA encourages and supports the establishment of industry standards and specifications for mobile health—the most classic regulatory mechanism.The FDA reviews products in the fields of commercial conduct and mobile health based on these consensus standards. The FDA believes that consensus standards not only save time and costs but also avoid issues arising from differing standards and specifications in international cooperation.

The FDA’s proactive engagement in dialogue with the mobile health industry carries an additional significance: it enables the United States to emphasize its standards and regulatory frameworks in international cooperation, thereby better supporting and encouraging global collaborative innovation in research and development. The FDA particularly emphasizes its leadership role in facilitating collaborations between U.S. institutions and international organizations or developing countries in the field of mobile telemedicine, including the establishment of product standard systems under ISO and IEC. The “bottom line” articulated by the FDA is that participation is the core key. The FDA’s involvement in developing guidelines and standards for mobile and telehealth, wearable devices, and cybersecurity data protection is positively significant. Historically, industry norms and standards have been areas of significant focus and active collaboration for the FDA.

Herein, the author has documented the core content and highlights of the 2015 mHealth Summit in the United States based on personal insights. These contents indeed reflect where U.S. mobile healthcare has “moved” to. Our cognitive and comprehension capabilities will determine how we can align our mobile healthcare initiatives with international developments, ultimately contributing to the grand vision of a Healthy China.

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