The variety of healthcare market research software and services can be overwhelming for industry marketers and new business strategists. This new monthly department in Healthcare PR & Marketing News highlights the latest in Internet programs, databases and software designed to make your market research projects easier to manage and evaluate.
Do-it-yourself Disease Management Software
FutureHealth has developed new software to allow managed care marketers to conduct their own disease management assessments. This software will likely shake up the disease management market as most healthcare organizations traditionally outsource this work rather than tackle it on their own.
FutureHealth, which has been in the disease management business for seven years, recently licensed FutureHealth RiskScreen version 3.1. for employers and managed care organizations to identify and monitor high-risk employees. The software:
- Updates employee medical information on a monthly basis.
- Identifies emerging medical conditions and triages employees into a risk category.
- Helps managed care organizations identify the best candidates for early healthcare intervention efforts.
- Is capable of helping companies identify the 4 to 6 percent of their employee population that may account for 50 to 60 percent of their healthcare costs.
(FutureHealth, Amy Levy, 202/686-3902)
Online Multi-state Database
"Outmigration" or targeting patients in a neighboring market is a huge issue for hospitals that that are promoting a regional network brand. The online resource arm of the Sachs Group, Astro Sachs, has developed a multi-state database based on three years of discharge data from 17 states, including Arizona, California, Florida and New York. The data allows planners to develop trending and comparative analyses of migration patterns in various regions.
Here's a snapshot of the kind of trending information the database provides: residents of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey account for 45 percent of the neurosurgery discharges and 38 percent of the open heart discharges in Philadelphia hospitals. For these two procedures, New Jersey hospitals in these three counties compete with Philadelphia hospitals for market share.
(Sachs Group, http://www.sachs.com, Sandy Rebitzer, 847/475-7526, ext. 2991)