1. HEALTHCARE MARKET
RESEARCH: SMS MESSAGING
PLATFORM
By Jim Lee

2. User Persona
■ Demographics:
– Physicians: Primary Care, Specialists,
– Nurse Practitioners
■ Needs:
– Chat with any number of colleagues about
any number of patients (various urgencies)
– Share documents such as lab tests,
paperwork, and scans with peers
“…we were able to flesh out the specific issues much
more intensely: electronic health record (EHR)
frustrations and group vs. single messaging issues
were the two core pain points discussed by users”

3. Goals
■ Keeping protected health information (PHI) safe with efficient ways
to communicate with peers
– HIPAA Compliant, Encryption, Security
– 80% of providers surveyed admit texting unsecure messages which
could result in a HIPAA violation of up to $1.5 million per violation
– Current use of pagers in the industry cost $1.75 million per hospital
■ Accessible and convenient (mobile and desktop based)
– Integrates with EMR systems
■ Cost Effective
■ Adoption of one platform by all hospitals and physicians
– User friendly to physicians
– Allows group and individual collaboration

4. Over 100 Applications!

5. WhichVendor?

6. WhichVendor?

7. ■ Market leader in 2015 (KLAS Report)
– Founded 2010
– Most provider recommended application
■ Key Features
– Priority Messaging
– Group Messaging
– SecureAttachments
■ Partners with Sprint
– One of the largest U.S. carriers
– Sprint Enterprise Messaging Suite

8. ■ Imprivata SecureText Solution
– Founded 2002, Cortext introduced 2012
– Focus on Healthcare security
– Winner of 2015/2016 Best in KLAS
■ Key Features
– Single sign on
– ePrescribing
– Broadcast organization-wide messages
– BringYour On Device: Manage user security settings

9. ■ athenaHealth SecureText Solution
– Founded in 1997, athenaText introduced 2015
– Integrated with athenaClinicals EMR system
– Newer market player
■ Key Features:
– Share PHI with other physicians
– Connect with a wider network 1M+ providers
– Search and prescribe with various drug
information

10. Pros
- Already used in one practice
- Easier to generate adoption and
buy in due to popularity
- High performing product, well
reviewed and recommended
- Interoperability with multiple
healthcare systems
Pros
- Experienced in healthcare
security, has additional products
- Can integrate with EHR systems
- Robust and more advanced
functionality
- Mindshare is comparable to
TigerText
Pros
- Experienced EHR vendor, with
several systems live
- Advanced functionalities
including drug lookup
- Free with athenaClinicals
Cons
- Considered basic application, no
advanced functionalities
- More expensive than most other
products ($11/device/month)
- No integration with EHRs
Cons
- Some development concerns
with earlier versions
Cons
- Can only integrate with
athenaClinicals
- Immature product, not as tested

11. WhichVendor?

12. Summary
■ Need to select a platform soon
– Practices not using a platform incur more costs due to
inefficiencies from pagers ($1.75M)
– Most physicians (80%) are already using unsecure forms of
communication due to convenience
■ Physicians are looking for a system that makes
documentation and communication convenient among peers
■ Many vendors with various strengths (experience or market
share)
– Basic applications (ShortTerm)
– Advanced, robust applications (LongTerm)

14. Works Cited
■ SECURE MESSAGING 2015: First Look at Who Providers
Are Considering and Why
(http://www.data.klasresearch.com/reports/1042)
■ Economic Impact of Inefficient Communication
(https://www.imprivata.com/resources/analyst-
reports/imprivata-report-economic-impact-inefficient-
communications-healthcare)
■ Searching for Product Market Fit
(http://launchingtechventures.blogspot.com/2015/04/searchi
ng-for-product-market-fit-for.html)

15. What do physicians want?
User Story 1
Every day at work, I chat with any number of colleagues about any number of patients. It
could be about critical things, small things, urgent things, or non-urgent things.A lot of
this happens through text messaging. Some through emailing…
User Story 2
Often, I also have to share documents – lab test, paperwork, scans with my colleagues.
Again, this happens through email. Sometimes through our EMR, but it’s hard to get an
immediate response to that without also using text messaging.
User Story 3
The patients I see are often here for long term or chronic care issues. But I have limited
ways to communicate with them outside of the clinic or hospital.They try to reach me
through pages or through phone calls occasionally. I may not have time to deal with them
even if they could reach me.
User Story 4
Other times, I need to share documents – lab tests, paperwork, scans with my patients.
This is often seperate from the previous communication.

16. Pain points?
“…we were able to flesh out the specific issues much more
intensely: electronic health record (EHR) frustrations and
group vs. single messaging issues were the two core pain
points discussed by users”

17. Current State?
■ The industry primarily relies on
pagers to communicate
emergencies
■ Almost 85% of hospitals rely on
pagers
■ “The US pager market peaked at
about 45 million devices in the mid-
1990s, but a few million pagers are
still in use today, mostly in health
care…”

19. Potential Cost (per Hospital)
When accounting for time and labor, inefficiencies from
pagers costs each hospital an estimated:
$1.75 million
– Patient Admission: $728,000
– Emergency Response Coordination: $265,000
– PatientTransfer: $754,000