The conversations about wearable Internet of Things devices too often focus on the devices and their capabilities, rather than the ecosystem they can inspire. The Apple Watch has had its features and functions explained in detail. What we should really look at is its role in the ecosystem around the user and the larger organization when used in business. What role does a collective of Watch users play in the ecosystem? What business process does it facilitate or change? IMS Health, the global healthcare information services company, has taken a close look at the ecosystem of user devices and how they support different roles in healthcare with a new initiative.
In a conversation with IMS Health Chief Digital Officer, Richie Etwaru, he gave an early peek into a new ecosystem, their life sciences wearable platform that is intended to support the pharmaceutical industry end-to-end. The Danbury, CT company already works with over 100,000 healthcare data providers, and processes 55 billion healthcare transactions a year.
IMS Health has envisioned an ecosystem the focuses on role-based uses by patients, doctors, pharma sales representatives, pharma managers and executives. Labeled the IMS HealthWear Life Sciences Wearables platform, the first release consists of
These two together envisions a data-driven sales process where each role can have real time information literally at hand. The sales representative can see which clients are nearby, their schedules of meetings, access contact & location information about their next client, product information and documentation for the client, and their own sales data and performance. These functions are available on other devices like laptops, but the form factor of the Apple Watch makes the information much simpler to access with less hassle of looking for or juggling devices.
Fig 1. IMS MGRWear mobile insights app for the Apple Watch (image: IMS Health)
IMS MGRWear (see Fig. 1) is intended for the territory sales manager to have a 360 view of their sales reps in action. They can see the current status of individual reps activity and coverage, see each of their performances over the quarter, make approvals for requests by their rep, and their own meetings and schedule.
The key idea is to keep it simple and use the push notification philosophy of the Watch. Often, there is a change to the role of the physician they are meeting with and the system can push this information out to the Sales Manager and Reps. Being notified early means the Sales Reps know how to interact with the physician and not waste time. The design focuses on making only the necessary information with screen swipes to see more. The information becomes visible when you lift your arm to view the Apple Watch.
The bigger story is the ecosystem of future apps for other roles. IMS EXECWear is for the pharma executive as a simplified business intelligence dashboard to help them make better decisions. IMS DOCWear will be for physicians to keep up with industry changes, and updated information from Reps and partners. IMS CAREWear is for patients to engage their care team. There can be other possibilities for intermediary roles in the healthcare system. All these apps are planned for future release to complete the service journey end-to-end.
This system accounts for the operational IT challenges of provisioning and managing a new category of user devices. While the apps themselves are available on the app store, these are intended for enterprise customers and need to be integrated into a secure environment with an enterprise directory, customer and other data systems.
What IMS Health has done is given a realistic business use of the Apple Watch and wearable devices to drive today’s operations of the pharma industry as well as set them for the future. This ecosystem encompasses the process throughout multiple roles across different organizations, whether partners, physician customers, or their own patient customers. The IMS HealthWear platform takes the Apple Watch from techno-fashionwear and puts it to productive work.
Rawn Shah is Director of Rising Edge, an independent consultancy focused on work culture, collaboration, and the future of work. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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