Deborah DiSanzo, president of Best Buy Health, outlined the technology retail company's healthcare strategy at HLTH's 2021 conference.
Five insights:
- Ms. DiSanzo said Best Buy's purpose is to enrich lives with technology. With health IT consumerism, the retail company aims to enhance patients' health year-round.
"COVID unleashed the consumer and the consumer is not going back into the bottle," Ms. DiSanzo said. "I want to pick a physician like I pick a TV." - Best Buy also wants to work with health systems on their "hospital-at-home" programs. Traditionally, physicians have to explain to patients how to use technology, sometimes even taking it out of the wrapping and assembling it so it's ready for use, Ms. DiSanzo said. Best Buy wants to do all that for physicians.
- Best Buy has three places patients can get assistance: Geek Squad City, a health squad and 1,400 healthcare professionals. Best Buy aims to use these channels to work with older patients, as well as Medicaid and Medicare patients. With its pending acquisition of remote patient monitoring and telehealth company Current Health, Best Buy intends to care for patients by connecting them with their physicians.
- Best Buy said current patient remote monitoring systems don't curate care for the patient. Older adults or sick patients who need to monitor their blood pressure might have difficulty linking their product to their EHR, or the blood pressure cuff might be too rough for their arms. In this arena, patients need a lot of one-on-one help to get their devices linked properly and guidance on how to use the product, Ms. DiSanzo said.
- Before setting its sights on purchasing Current Health, Ms. DiSanzo said Best Buy considered more than 300 remote care companies. Current Health was selected because Best Buy was drawn to its technology and decided its team would best match Best Buy's culture.