As Sandra Elliott, Corporate Director Consumer Technology and Service Development, Meridian Health spoke at the conference, it was clear that Meridian has enthusiastically embraced technology to support self care and care management. Sandra is working with a team to transform the way care is delivered in the community, with consumers at the center. Led by  the Meridian Innovations Council, the team  is  bringing together entrepreneurs from different industries, and areas of expertise including technology, marketing, merchandising and business development to better understand the best mechanisms to target consumers directly. 

Meridian Health has made extensive effort to truly understand the customer’s needs from all different angles: clinical, physiological, financial and environmental in order to define a set of technologies and services to support their needs. In addition, they have taken at holistic look at the consumer’s life including their capabilities, behaviors and attitudes. Their environmental evaluation, for example, entailed understanding what it means to create a “safe home” and the consumer’s ability to get assistance when required.

Unlike many companies, Meridian Health’s learning is ongoing. Meridian understands that evaluating the needs is only the first step and that these technologies need to be assessed within the context of the consumer’s life. They have created a ‘Volunteer Network’ Program to tap consumers aged 50+ with various healthcare conditions and technology capabilities for pilot programs.

Sandra has moved beyond the essential remote monitoring, EMR/PHR and portal technologies to
testing “social networking sites” for patients with a specific conditions. She described one online community launching in July for consumers with Multiple Sclerosis. Meridian Health has already learned about the lifestyle of these consumers and their need for services and more support at the local level.

Over time, I will closely follow Meridian Health since they are pursing innovative approaches and programs and end- to- end consumer centric processes required to impact healthcare delivery today.