Summary
Economically disadvantaged individuals often experience difficulties accessing high-quality care, which subjects them to compromised health outcomes. That is why the Patient Care Management and Rewards Program advocates for using Altruista GuidingCare (Altruista) software to track health behavior indicators among such populations.
Analysis
In the beginning, it is necessary to explain what indicators Altruista monitors. According to the NORC (2012), the focus is on “weight management, aerobic activity, and medication compliance” (p. 2). The software under consideration monitors patients’ behaviors and offers financial rewards for achieving specific goals. This fact demonstrates that individuals are provided with coaching and receive additional motivation to lead healthy lifestyles. Simultaneously, the whole medical system faces improvement because Altruista reduces health expenditures and decreases the workload on healthcare professionals.
However, one should admit that Altruista brings specific problems that can minimize potential advantages. Firstly, the software application cooperates with many other IT systems, including IncentPay and Electronic Health Records, but interoperability is not established among them (NORC, 2012). As a result, it is necessary to scan the systems and transmit data among them manually. Secondly, Altruista is ineffective for those individuals who cannot access it. This statement refers to inhabitants of remote areas that suffer from inadequate transportation and mediocre infrastructure (NORC, 2012). Thirdly, the possibility of achieving the benefits is compromised because people do not typically have much trust in new technologies, and this effect is more evident when it comes to patients with low education levels (NORC, 2012). These individuals experience skepticism toward innovation, and this attitude prevents them from utilizing it and obtaining many advantages. Finally, insufficient infrastructure and Internet coverage of the suggested program are significant barriers that make it challenging to implement Altruista (NORC, 2012). Consequently, one should offer practical solutions to address the identified issues.
Recommendations
The following recommendations and project management principles can help facilitate the Altruista application with respect to user acceptance, utilization, and sustainability. Firstly, it is reasonable to invest in developing technologies to establish interoperability between Altruista and other systems (NORC, 2012). Barbosa et al. (2021) stipulate that the focus on innovation leads to essential benefits for different projects. Secondly, many financial resources are necessary to ensure that Altruista is available for many people from remote areas (NORC, 2012). This step addresses the second and the fourth problems from the previous section and ensures that numerous individuals are aware of the program and that this software application works in their local areas. Thirdly, promoting higher education is an effective intervention to increase people’s trust in new technologies (van Velthoven & Cordon, 2019). Thus, these recommendations can lead to a more successful implementation of Altruista.
Implications
The suggested solutions can significantly affect the organization under analysis. In the short term, the organization will face many challenges because it will need to invest many resources and efforts in improving Altruista and implementing it. However, these costs will result in significant benefits in the long run because the recommendations promise to improve the population’s health and reduce the workload on physicians (NORC, 2012). The entire industry will also face essential benefits since the implementation of innovation contributes to the overall development of the selected community (Barbosa et al., 2021). In conclusion, since a recommendation insists on improving people’s education, this outcome will denote that patients will have sufficient internal motivation and understanding of how they should take care of themselves.
References
Barbosa, A. P. F. P. L., Salerno, M. S., de Souza Nascimento, P. T., Albala, A., Maranzato, F. P., & Tamoschus, D. (2021). Configurations of project management practices to enhance the performance of open innovation R&D projects.International Journal of Project Management, 39(2), 128-138. Web.
NORC. (2012). Patient care management and rewards program – Promoting and tracking wellness behaviors within the context of an existing case-management program [PDF document]. Web.
Van Velthoven, M. H., & Cordon, C. (2019). Sustainable adoption of digital health innovations: Perspectives from a stakeholder workshop. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(3), e11922. Web.