Johnson & Johnson is Combining Behavioural Science and Technology to Help Patients Recovering from Surgery
Surgery is always a daunting prospect for patients, and preparation and recovery can be a source of great stress. However, with its new digital healthcare platform, Johnson & Johnson is looking to take some of the stress out of surgery.
Johnson & Johnson was founded in 1885 by three brothers of the Johnson family. The company’s first product was a line of ready-to-use surgical dressings which began production in 1886. Over the next century and a half, Johnson & Johnson grew, acquired and diversified to become the household name it is today.
Johnson & Johnson is now the world’s largest healthcare product companies, with revenues of $71,890 million and over 126,000 employees, placing it at #35 on the Fortune 500.
The Need for a Digital Healthcare Platform
Research by Johnson & Johnson has shown that healthcare professionals at all levels have an interest in using behavioural science to improve the ways patients and caregivers engage with the health system.
Healthcare professionals are especially concerned with improving patients’ engagement with their pre and post-surgical care pathways. Fortunately, digital technology now has the power and the potential to foster this engagement.
With these findings in mind, Johnson & Johnson set out to create a new kind of digital healthcare platform, designed specifically to help patients deal with surgery. The new platform, Health Partner, combines research in the psychology of behaviour change with digital technology, in order to help both patients and caregivers access support and information.
“Healthcare is personal, and helping people achieve their best health is deeply rooted in our commitment as a healthcare company,” said Sandra Peterson, Group Worldwide Chair at Johnson & Johnson. “Health Partner has been designed with the ‘whole person’ experience in mind to help ensure better engagement between patients and their healthcare team and get patients back to living their lives – because we know that will help enhance efficiencies and quality of care.”
The Health Partner platform consists of three interconnected tools which can all be accessed online at any time. The website provides education and resources designed to answer any questions a patient may have about upcoming treatment. There’s also an app which assists patients both as they prepare for surgery and through their recovery. Finally, the Health Partner care portal is designed to allow care providers and health systems facilitate real-time interaction and engagement at all stages of the patient’s treatment journey.
A Complete Support Service
The Health Partner platform is a brilliant resource for the information alone, which provides educational resources about treatment options and encourages patients towards healthy behaviours which improve their chances of complete recovery. However, by leveraging the power of behavioural science, Health Partner also addresses the psychological and emotional challenges that many patients face when preparing for and recovering from surgery.
Fear, uncertainty, confusion, and depression can all come in to play when patients are faced with surgical treatment. The Health Partner platform aims to help patients work through these feelings in a constructive way, by building belief in themselves, and giving them confidence in their treatment decisions and ability to return to better health.
“We believe the ability to customise a patient’s care path to their physical and emotional needs is critical for recovery,” said James Demetriades, Vice President of Operations at Princeton HealthCare System, which is piloting the Health Partner platform. “We want our patients to go home happy, with restored function and little to no pain.”
Final Thoughts
Surgery can be an overwhelming ordeal for anyone to go through. However, with the Health Partner digital healthcare platform, Johnson & Johnson is doing everything it can to ensure patients have the best chance possible of a complete recovery.
The final word goes to James Demetriades: “Health Partner will not only allow our care team to provide critical resources to patients throughout the entire orthopaedic episode of care – pre-op to post-op – but also give the team the ability to monitor patient behaviour, track progress and facilitate discussions around results in real-time.”
You can hear Johnson & Johnson’s Senior Director of Strategic Capabilities for J&J Medical Italy, Salvo Cunsolo, speak at MedForce Europe 2018 this June at the Hotel Palace, Berlin. Download the agenda to find out more.