Harvard Business Review: Digital Health Tools Offer New Opportunities for Personalized Care

By X. Shirley Chen and Mitesh S. Patel for Harvard Business Review How can health systems implement digital technology as part of their strategy and approach in creating effective behavior interventions? A look at other industries marks a distinguishable pattern: behavioral phenotypes. Companies such as Google or Amazon track individual attributes such as behavior or preferences in order to customize information and design a better, individualized experience. Mitesh Patel and X. Shirley Chen had members of their group conduct a series of studies to demonstrate how behavioral phenotyping could make digital health solutions more effective. The study utilized latent class analysis and identified hidden patterns that linked individuals together through common behavioral phenotypes, consequently differentiating three distinct groups, which allowed more in-depth interpretation of the participants. Findings suggested that health care providers should implement more personalized and tailored experiences targeted for each patient. Read more on Harvard Business Review