Kim Ingram, R.N., MyndYou’s vice president of clinical Strategy, is a clinical innovator and an agile healthcare technology executive with more than 30 years’ experience in the healthcare industry.
In this interview, we talk to Kim about how she’s worked with both health plans and risk-bearing providers use digital health technologies achieve transformational change.
What sparked your interest in healthcare technology?
Throughout my career, I’ve focused on thinking differently about how we can interact with and support individuals.
I’m a nurse by background. I’ve spent 30 years in healthcare, starting out as a clinician who worked in a rural hospital setting for 10 years and then spent 10 years on the health plan side.
Around 2000, I could see the web was going to be a very important part of how we would connect with people. That led to the first predictive tool that could identify and segment patient populations. We could really focus on those in most need–really focus on impact.
I worked on a five-year digital health strategy at The Regence Group, a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association-affiliated regional health plan, and co-developed the first version of their care management platform.
I led the team that designed what the future of care management and care coordination would look like.
Digital health platforms like MyEleanor have the power to drive true outcomes. The thing that I love about Eleanor is it’s as simple as a phone call for patients. They don’t need an app or any special equipment. That allows payers and providers to really meet people where they are. With her capabilities, I can feel that opportunity for her to be able to listen and create those insights to action.
How does digital health impact the patient-provider relationship?
The healthcare industry is very regulatory- and compliance-driven. And it still is, but we need to focus on engagement and patient satisfaction, which is becoming a priority for CMS, Medicare, and Medicaid, too. How do we do that? By connecting patients in a way that increases affordability and access.
We have to be compassionate about focusing on the individual and their needs. Eleanor is designed to be very focused on small, incremental markers that are important to each individual and their health, including social determinants of health.
How does Eleanor help address SDOH, including the digital divide?
Providers and communities must solve SDOH issues–it has a direct impact on population health. Eleanor can connect patients with community-based organizations or their area council on aging to request food assistance, for example.
If you, the provider, can’t be there, at the very least you can connect them to people who are right there in their home town or community or neighborhood. That’s great.
Digital health helps ACOs and other organizations, especially, because it’s a creative way to truly impact the quality of care in any setting. Eleanor is a “deviceless” platform–it’s no more complicated than a phone call for the patient. So, she helps reduce technological barriers, too.
Read Kim’s most recent blog post: How MyEleanor Helps Reduce Costly ED Visits.
Connect with Kim on LinkedIn.
About MyndYou
The MyndYou team serves a higher mission to impact lives for the better. We perform our work with respect and trust, maintaining open communication, working collaboratively to solve challenges and effect rapid progress. We are a culturally diverse team committed to providing the best product experience for our customers and their patients. MyndYou does what no other platform is doing today. Our active-listening virtual care assistant, MyEleanor, extends your member reach by calling high- or rising-risk populations and triaging them using our proprietary data analytics engine. Eleanor detects subtle changes in a patient’s voice, listening not only to what they say, but also how they say it.
