Eric Zimmerman, Chief Marketing Officer, RedBrick Health shares his insights at the Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers. Eric spoke on the "Effective Strategies to Drive Healthy Living through all Life Stages" panel at the 2014 event.

What is the most important next step for healthcare providers to engage consumers in digital health solutions?
Healthcare providers can engage consumers by starting where consumers are – both motivationally and with respect to their preferred modalities and digital solutions. Create, or align with digital solutions that feature thoughtful consumer experience design and that show a keen understanding about how behavior works. Deliver on the “WIIFM” factor – don’t focus on the health record, focus on what I can do with it. Don’t focus on the medical content, focus on tools that support successful health habit formation.

What will be the biggest impact for consumers as a result of digital health solutions?
If executed well, the impact on health and healthcare will be profound. Engaging in my health will become fully integrated into my life – with little extra effort. Consumer will have a personalized health coach in their pocket. And accessing healthcare services will be as convenient as any other service – via web, smartphone, traditional phone, or face to face, with full integration of information and service across modalities. If not executed well (from a design and usability perspective) there will be minimal impact.

What will be the biggest driver for digital health market?
Some may argue that market reform will be driven by incentives, or changes in provider payment models. Those are accelerators of change, however the biggest driver will be the consumer. Solutions that work – whether that be in terms of helping me in (and rewarding me for) living fully engage and healthfully, or in terms of new digitally supported healthcare services that save me time, money, or simply deliver a better result – will attract consumers. The baby boomer and post-boomer generations will have fundamentally different demands and expectations and they will reward solutions that deliver on these core values and reject traditional approaches that don’t