Healthcare. It’s just one word, but it feels like over a hundred problems and potential solutions spun up like a spider web — benefits, cost savings and improvements are stuck together without being truly connected.

1. The Complete Guide to
Wellness Software Development
Why Health Portals & Apps Matter More Now Than Ever Before
mentormate.com | 3036 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408 | (888) 710-3307

2. Taking a pulse on wellness trends
Contents
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7
11
14
19
24
Who ignores doctors’ orders?
Improving patient habits with technology
How to create health portals, apps and software patients want to use
Health and wellness software kick-off plan
Deciding what’s next

3. It’s no secret that healthcare is a $3 trillion dollar market.1
Payers, providers
and practitioners know that costs need to drop and fast. Treating patients
retroactively for chronic conditions that developed after years of poor habits
is costly, and often, ineffective. Habits have formed, and they can be all but
impossible to shake — like not finishing a piece of pepperoni pizza halfway
through the slice. Now imagine if you hadn’t taken that first bite.
That’s exactly how many employers, payers and providers are viewing the
capability of wellness and, more importantly, wellness technology. Wellness
portals, apps and solutions have the potential to engage users at the very
top of the funnel when they are most susceptible to behavioral changes that
drive down costs, prevent chronic conditions and ultimately save lives.
The power of
preventative health
of healthcare spending
in 2010 was used by
people with one or more
chronic conditions 2
86%

4. Taking a pulse on wellness trends

5. The prognosis for wellness and prevention
has much room for improvement. Medication
adherence remains one noticeable symptom
of the larger problem. Over 33 percent of new
patient prescriptions are never filled.3
Beyond
that, half of patients with chronic conditions
cease taking their prescriptions 180 days
after they are written, according to the
National Institutes of Health.4
Nationwide
checkup

6. These low rates of patient follow-through
wouldn’t be a problem if only a few were
responsible for maintaining their health with
medication. That’s not the case. Nearly half
of all Americans, 48% to be exact, take at least
one prescription drug.5
Patients who don’t
adhere to their prescription regime require
additional care and often hospital stays.
This alone can ring up a bill of $289 billion
per year, as determined by the Network for
Excellence in Health Innovation, a non-profit
national health policy institute in Massachusetts.6
That’s just the financial cost. There’s also
the very real cost of human lives to consider,
to the tune of 125,000 lives lost each year
related to nonadherence.
Medication
adherence is
a problem —
a big one
48%of Americans
take at least one
prescription drug5

7. Who ignores doctors’ orders?

8. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research
completed a study in 2014 exploring the people
behind high rates of nonadherence. They examined
health data from 16,000 patients. They found those
least likely to take or fill their prescriptions were
those prescribed the most expensive drugs along
with those using medication to treat chronic
conditions. This alone begins to explain the high
financial and human costs of nonadherence.7
Taking stock of
behavioral trends

9. Curing medication nonadherence
Who ignores doctors’ orders
Patients with high co-pays
Patients with multiple
serious medical conditions
Source: Townsend 8
Who follows doctors’ orders
Patients with 5+ medications
Patients who make more physician visits
Patients in their 60’s
Patients who were recently
hospitalized or visited the ER

10. Cheating when it comes to health and wellness
has much more serious consequences than
sneaking a look at your opponent’s hand in a
game of cards when they’re distracted. Ignoring
the warning signs for a serious condition or
failing to follow a practitioner’s guidelines to
maintain health can be life-threatening.
Cost, unwanted side-effects and failure
to understand the benefits of medication
all contribute to patients’ inability to
effectively maintain their health.
Patient outcomes are no longer a personal issue.
Increasingly, providers are asked to shoulder the
financial cost of quality patient care and at-home
maintenance. Medicare will now reduce funding to
acute care hospitals with excess readmissions.9
Why? Readmissions point to a hospital’s failure
to communicate the benefits of ongoing care
and patients’ inability to maintain the expected
standards. Senior researchers believe this
inverse financial incentive will spur providers
to take a more progressive role in patient
engagement and activation.10
The stakes are
high for patients
who gamble with
health & wellness Why can’t patients follow the rules?

11. Improving patient habits with technology

12. Patient activation is a measure researchers use to describe how
involved users are in the maintenance of their health. Researchers
have found a link between activated patients and the populations
who engage in preventative behaviors like taking prescriptions as
directed and living well. Patients with higher activation levels
engage in more preventative behaviors, seek information about
their health more readily and engage in self-health management —
like taking their prescriptions as directed.
Beginning to hold
providers accountable
for quality patient
care points toward
the increasing
emphasis on wellness
and preventative health.
Patient activation lies
at the center of this
national trend.
What is patient activation and why does it matter?
Engaged users are healthy patients

13. All the figures around preventative
health come down to one simple
idea. Empower patients to take a
more active role in the management
of their care and improve health
outcomes while driving down
industry costs. To do this providers,
practitioners, payers and start-ups
are turning to wellness technology —
from apps to portals.
In patients with hypertension, more highly activated
patients are more likely to take medication as directed.10
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 4
Patients with higher activation levels are more likely to
read about complications associated with their conditions.12
Empower patients. Save lives.
31%
36%
88%
78%

14. How to create health portals, apps
and software patients want to use

15. Patient activation is the problem. Solutions
that help users engage in understanding and
managing their health is the answer. The battle
to create technology that cuts through the noise
can be a daunting one. The most common
use case for an app is fleeting. It is opened.
Then promptly forgotten about. Partnering with
technologists, developers and strategists who
understand the potential in healthcare is the key
to imagining, designing and developing technology
that patients care about and continue using.
When designing a wellness solution,
it starts with just one question.
Creating a worthwhile
solution is harder
than it looks
Solution
Problem

16. The first question to ask yourself when
considering a health or wellness solution
is a simple one. Should you custom build
the software new, or should you adapt
a pre-existing white label solution?
There are considerations of course.
Do you anticipate wanting more
functionality and control in the future?
How large is your budget?
Do you trust that the manufacturer of the
white label software will remain solvent and
able to provide support as long as you need it?
To build or
not to build?

17. Curious about putting a white label app or portal
to work for you business? Consider your long-term
strategy. There’s no question that integrating with
third-party products can reduce initial development
costs. This is, of course, assuming that the solution
is being used exactly as it was designed. If you
don’t plan to change anything about the app, this
may pay off in the long-run. On the other hand,
what you save initially may come back to haunt you.
Custom add-ons or adapting the app/portal as your
business needs change is often difficult. The only
thing worse than struggling through a frustrating
sequence of futile development attempts or work-
arounds is having your product constrain growth.
White label apps —
saving costs or
prolonging the
frustration?
While white label solutions certainly have
their drawbacks, using them to release
software within a limited time frame is a
valid strategy. In the long-term though,
the only way to avoid finding yourself at
the mercy of the manufacturer is to custom
develop your app, portal or website.
If custom development seems outside of
your budget, think about it this way: Pay now
for exactly what you want or pay later by
cobbling add-ons in an attempt to differentiate
a white label solution.

18. Custom design goes a long way, especially
when you have an experienced and talented
team developing high-quality work. Creating
your health app from scratch will give you
much greater flexibility compared to a solution
composed of several off-the-shelf components.
So you decided
to custom-build a
wellness solution.
What’s next?

19. Health and wellness software kick-off plan

20. This will give your business the upper hand
in a competitive marketplace. If your partner
continually seeks to understand and implement
emerging technologies, you will be able to adapt
and grow your solution faster than competitors.
Find a partner
who seeks out
new technologies

21. Any good development partner will take
you through a series of ideation exercises
to determine your user personas and help
you understand how these key audiences
will interact with your solution and what they
will gain. Knowing who your core users are
is pivotal to anticipating their needs as your
software evolves.
Explore your
target audience
Knowing who
your core users
are is pivotal to
anticipating
their needs as
your software
evolves.

22. Different variables can influence whether you
decide to build a native app, responsive website,
portal or combination of the three. Web applications
are appealing to many since they translate well onto
a majority of devices — desktops, laptops, tablets,
smartphones and the web-browser-enabled cars of
the future. Historically, web applications haven’t been
able to leverage the robust technical capabilities as
well as native apps. This gap is quickly closing.
Choose a solution:
mobile or web
Considering current capabilities, native apps generally
have better offline capabilities. They are the only choice
if your solution requires integration with Bluetooth
devices. Producing a native app also makes more
sense if your solution will require a significant amount
of on-device storage.
Maybe you don’t have to choose at all. Often, product
road maps include a native app and web experience.
A top development partner can help you maximize
your spend on development and design.
Top 2 reasons to
create a web app
They’re less expensive to produce
They don’t require device-
specific customization

23. Selecting the features you would like your
solution to launch with will help you set up a
reasonable development roadmap. The best
development partners go through this process
with you. Feature prioritization allows you to
remain on-time and on-budget bringing your
solution to market.
Define your
priority features
A smaller subset of your target audience with
defined behaviors and traits. To determine the
user personas who will be interacting with your
solution, first identify the scenarios of use.
Who are these people?
How will they interact with the application?
Why do they want to interact with the application?
What are their goals?
User personas

24. Deciding what’s next

25. This is a common scenario. You’ve released
a white label app or web solution a year or two
ago. Lately, things just haven’t been functioning
as they should. How do you know whether you
should cut ties and begin work on a new tool or
adapt your current solution?
Sometimes
you just have
to cut the cord
Tell-tale signs your relationship with your
current software has run its course:
A support company no longer exists or they
aren’t responsive. The inability to reach users
on mobile or through a web browser is another
flashing red beacon to move on to something
new. This is where your users are and want to be.
Your solution needs to be available there too.
Excessive customization of your white label
solution also screams, “Time to seek out
a development partner.” If you have needs
greater than what a basic solution can provide,
it’s time to begin working with a team who
can help you realize them.

26. MentorMate has designed, delivered and staffed digital experiences since 2001. Along the
way we’ve learned a lot. Now it’s time to share. That’s why we founded MobCon in 2012 and MobCon
Digital Health in 2015. Each year we host conferences for the top minds in mobile and digital strategy
to do just that. Be part of what’s next and dive deep into the trends and technologies revolutionizing
engagement in today’s business landscape. Connect. Listen. Grow. We’ve taken the leap. Have you?
Register for our next event at mobcon.com
mentormate.com | 3036 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408 | (888) 710-3307
MobCon developed by MentorMate
Talk with an expert
Ready to innovate? Contact us to learn more about the potential
to build or adapt wellness technology. We’re all ears.
888-710-3307
info@mentormate.com

27. References
1 9
Millenson, Michael. (2015, June 8).
Health Datapalooza: A Shot of Whiskey,
A “Data Hippie” And Capitalism.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelmillen-
son/2015/06/08/health-datapalooza-a-shot-
of-whiskey-a-data-hippie-and-capitalism/
The official U.S. Government site
for Medicare. (2015, June 16).
Linking quality to payment.
http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/
linking-quality-to-payment.html?AspxAutoDe-
tectCookieSupport=1
2 10
11
12
3
4
5, 6
7, 8
Koeppl, Patrick & Robertson, Emily. ( 2015,
June 4). The healthy choice: How behavioral
factors create influential health campaigns.
http://dupress.com/articles/behav-
ior-change-communications-in-health-care/?id
=us:2el:3dc:dup958:eng:behx:dcpromo
Hibbard, Judith H. 2008. Increasing patient
activation to improve health and reduce costs.
http://iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity%20
Files/Quality/VSRT/IC%20Meeting%20Docs/
VILC%20Patients%2010-04-11/Judith%20Hib-
bard2.pdf
Hibbard, J. (2008). Engaging consumers
to improve health and reduce costs
[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
www.allhealth.org/briefingmaterials/Hib-
bard-1727.ppt bard2.pdf
See Hibbard, Increasing patient activation.
Townsend, Angela. (2014, April 1).
Ignoring doctor’s orders: Not filling
new prescription is common patient
habit, study shows.
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.
ssf/2014/04/ignoring_doctors_orders_not_fill-
ing_new_prescription_is_common_patient_
habit_study_shows.html
Tozzi, John. (2013, March 28). ‘Take your pills’
reminders from apps and gadgets.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/arti-
cles/2013-03-28/take-your-pills-reminders-
from-apps-and-gadgets
See Tozzi.
See Townsend.