VivaPhi, Center of Health Engagement partner to deliver value-based health system

VivaPhi and the Center of Health Engagement announce their strategic partnership to define and deliver a networked, learning, and value-based health system. The partnership will engage in research using health data to develop insights into how health care decisions are made in by patients, and how those decisions influence new models of care.

VivaPhi is a consultancy focused on digital strategies and consumer engagement in health care. The Center of Health Engagement is a change agency putting consumers at the center of care with engagement strategies for all stakeholders.

"Our organizations have become known for identifying patient engagement and digital health as cornerstones to value-based care with measurable impacts", says Leonard Kish, President of VivaPhi. "By joining forces, we'll provide world-class leadership for organizations looking to create successful models that help consumers become the CEO of their own health, a concept pioneered by the Center of Health Engagement. Our goal is to help organizations build successful models based on the long-term health of the patients, including financial and social health. This will require a broad, network model of the health system, and a deep combined understanding of data, behavior, risks, incentives, contracts, health care business models and digital tools."

Cyndy Nayer, President of the Center of Health Engagement, presents the organizations' successes as a call to action to deliver on value-based care and identifies 3 goals for the combined partnership:

1. To align incentives around value as defined by different stakeholders, including consumers.

2. To develop a discipline around healthcare decision-making to improve digital health tools.

3. To create a blueprint for financially viable businesses around population health and engagement, understanding the needs-wants-preferences of different groups, experiences and influences.

According to Nayer, "Digital strategies are becoming central to any patient and consumer engagement strategy, and VivaPhi has shown great thought leadership in the digital, networked approach to creating change in health care. With major digital and mobile players diving into health care, we're starting to see what VivaPhi has been saying, that it's the network of people, now ever more connected, that drive health. We need to do a better job of "powering networked action".

"There's been a massive shift in health care with the implementation of value-based care and purchasing, including new incentive structures that Cyndy Nayer and the Center of Health Engagement have pioneered," according to Kish. "Value-based care means going from top down, led by institutions, to bottom-up, led by consumers driving choices and accepting risks. Becoming 'CEO of your healthcare' embodies this movement: accepting the risks and rewards for decision-making for your own health. The CEOs of organizations must learn how to successfully navigate this shift."

"Becoming the chief executive of your health is also emblematic of a new paradigm in health care where people act more like independent agents, driven by their own goals, rewards and risks, and making more decisions. Nayer has pioneered an understanding of the key drivers at the consumer level using mapping technology. We're looking forward to continuing our work to develop a whole new level of understanding in this consumer-driven era," says Kish.

Together, these two agile innovation companies will investigate data, behaviors and influences that impact health decisions. The first steps were showing hotspots of population risks that go beyond clinical. The next steps will be in creating tools that support trusted patient-provider relationships and better population health, and helping organizations prioritize and implement programs based upon short-term and long-term impacts, the health value added. The end goal is to help organizations build value in population health with sequential, meaningful and measurable increments, with a deep understanding of human behavior and digital acceleration.

"Competing goals and financial rewards continue to derail the patient outcomes we all want to see. We have been penny-wise and pound foolish in health care. Yet we understand disease well enough to know that about 70% of health care costs are due to the decisions people make on a daily basis." says Kish. "Cyndy Nayer has received recognition as one of the early pioneers in the area of aligning stakeholders, risks and rewards, and we're honored to work with her and the Center of Health Engagement to understand these dynamics better, and to build a path forward."

Nayer reinforces the message, "If we can't influence decisions and prevention, we won't get far with value-based care, and that's what this partnership brings to the table. We need a deep exploration of data on what actually works. VivaPhi will provide leadership on the data acquisition and digital strategies we need in a connected, learning, value-based health system."