Get to Know Care Programs

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Explain how care programs support patients.
Sign up for a Developer Edition org with Health Cloud.

Prerequisites

Before you start this module, consider the recommended prerequisites to best prepare you to learn.

Recommended

Completion of these modules:

Find Coactive Support

The history of healthcare shows an interesting evolution of patient services. In the 1960s, healthcare was fragmented. Medical support reacted to patients’ needs but provided no further support. Due to advances in medicine in the following 30 years, healthcare became proactive and patient-centric, but it still had a long way to go before it could provide prophylactic care. In recent times, however, we’ve gone a step further. Now we have coactive patient support. Patients are more than the recipients of care; they are partners in their own health.

What does that mean?

Graph showing change in medical support from low-to-no support in the 1990s to coactive support today.

With advances in digitization, we have the emergence of the empowered healthcare customer. Patients are involved in their health outcomes. They want a consolidated approach to healthcare, ranging from decisions around their lifestyle to adherence to drug regimens. They want to know their risk of developing illnesses and to learn about preventive strategies they can adopt before an illness sneaks up on them.

This is where coactive support comes in. Coactive support is offered through care programs, which include wellness journeys, dietary changes, and nutrition classes. These care services promote the health and fitness of a targeted set of patients with common conditions. Care programs offer guidance and support for a patient to proactively manage their health. By increasing patients’ adherence to treatment plans, care programs also help pharmaceutical companies reduce costs.

These are some of the ways Health Cloud care programs help patients manage their health.

By providing education around how to make the most of a medication.
By sharing resources and providing training to ensure that medication is taken properly.
By arranging follow-up procedures to monitor progress.
By extending financial support and benefits investigation.
By sending adherence reminders through connected devices.
By conducting predictive analysis (through Einstein Analytics) to help detect adherence risks.

Let’s look at the other side of the story. Care programs benefit not only pharmaceutical companies, but also payers, providers, and patients. Let’s see how.

Pharma:

By involving patients in drug treatments and therapies as early as in the clinical trials, care programs help pharma companies determine the dosage for pills and the process for injections.
Care programs increase patients’ adherence to treatment plans so pharma companies can collect feedback and identify gaps in treatment.
Care programs reduce the time for a new treatment to reach patients, a positive commercial impact for pharma companies.
Many medical devices, such as made-to-measure artificial joints, require collaboration between med device companies and patients. Care programs help med device companies engage with patients and educate them about using their products.

Payers and Providers:

When pharma companies engage with patients to develop precision medicine, the incidence of accurate diagnosis increases and the number of readmissions decreases.

Patients:

Care programs provide deeper patient involvement, leading to better health outcomes.
Wellness journeys monitor treatment adherence and support lifestyle changes, thereby increasing the likelihood of controlling disease.

Phew. That’s a lot, but how does it apply to a real-world scenario?

Health Cloud offers an end-to-end process to support care programs. It takes only one click from the patient’s user record to set things in motion. A customizable flow lets patients pick a care program, choose relevant products, services, and providers, and provide consent. Then patients can receive knowledge articles for disease awareness and tips to manage their health.

Before we begin, you need to set up a special Developer Edition org that contains Health Cloud and sample data. Get the free Developer Edition and connect it to Trailhead now so you can complete the challenges in this module.

Even if you’ve recently signed up for a special Health Cloud-enabled Developer Edition org, sign up for a new one now. We’re always adding new data. Also note that the Health Cloud managed package expires after 30 days, so you may need a new org anyway.

Sign up for a free Developer Edition org with Health Cloud.
Fill out the form.
1. For Email, enter an active email address.
2. For Username, enter a username that looks like an email address and is unique. It doesn’t need to be a valid email account (for example, yourname@hc4evah.com is fine).
Click Sign me up. A confirmation message appears.
When you receive the activation email (this might take a few minutes), open it and click Verify Account.
Complete your registration by setting your password and challenge question.

Tip: Write down your username, password, and login URL for easy access later.

You are logged into your Developer Edition. Now connect your new Developer Edition org to Trailhead.

Make sure you’re logged in to your Trailhead account.
In the Challenge section at the bottom of this page, select Connect Org from the picklist.
On the Login screen, enter the username and password for the Developer Edition org you just set up.
On the Allow Access? screen, click Allow.
On the Want to connect this org for hands-on challenges? screen, click Yes! Save it.
You're returned to the challenge page, ready to use your new Developer Edition org to earn this badge.

Now that you have a Health Cloud-enabled org, try the steps in this module and get hands-on with the feature yourself.

Use Care Programs

Debbie Min has recently been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. She wants to learn more about the disease. She reaches out to Goodly Healthification Pharma for help. Leif Hansen, a patient manager at Goodly Healthification Pharma, knows exactly what to do.

Goodly Healthification Pharma offers a care program called Goodly Healthification Hyperthyroidism Management Care Program, which offers the care program product called Learn About Hyperthyroidism. Learn About Hyperthyroidism provides detailed knowledge articles about the causes, diagnosis, and management of hyperthyroidism. Leif decides that Debbie is a good fit for this program and enrolls her in it.

Health Cloud offers a program enrollment flow that allows Leif to select the Goodly Healthification Hyperthyroidism Management Care Program and the related care program products and services and care program providers for Debbie. At the end of the flow, Debbie views the consent form and provides her consent.

That's it! In a matter of minutes, Debbie is enrolled in a care program that can help her learn about hyperthyroidism. The care program provider, Goodly Healthification Research Team, offers excellent resources and articles for disease awareness. Debbie will receive detailed diet plans, nutrition advice, and lifestyle guides to help her manage her condition. What a great way to get started!

Meet the Patient

Debbie’s friend Lisa Green is 22 years old and has adult onset type 2 diabetes. She requires weekly insulin injections to manage her blood glucose levels. Lisa is nervous; she has never had to use an injection before. From Debbie, she learns about the Goodly Healthification Pharma care program that helps Debbie manage hyperthyroidism. Debbie tells her about other care programs that Goodly Healthification Pharma offers, including one for diabetes. Lisa decides to join the program. She contacts Goodly Healthification Pharma, where Leif is happy to help. Lisa is a good fit for the care program and Leif decides to enroll her in it.

In the next unit, you follow all the steps to enroll Lisa in the diabetes care program.

Resources

Salesforce Help: Easily Enroll Patients in Programs and Capture Their Consent