Inspera Health Uses IoT Data to Improve Patient Engagement and Health Outcomes

5 minute read | 19 Jan 2021

By Boomi

Inspera Health is a health and wellness provider that helps individuals suffering from multiple chronic conditions “rediscover, reinvent, and redefine” themselves amid unique personal challenges. To support that goal, the 25-year-old company has reinvented and redefined its technology and data infrastructure as a foundation for a multidisciplinary, data-driven approach that’s improving health outcomes.

Over the past few years, the Chicago-based company has been using the Boomi AtomSphere Platform to better manage participant data, including Internet of Things (IoT) data from Fitbit activity trackers and scales that participants use.

With Boomi capturing that IoT information, Inspera Health participants can track measurable progress on metrics such weight, activity minutes, heart rate, sleep patterns, and more, all through an online portal based on Salesforce Community.

Clear visibility into progress inspires participants to pursue continued improvements in collaboration with assigned Inspera Health coaches and behavioral clinicians. Inspera Health reports an average 38 percent health improvement for its participants over an 18-month engagement, as noted in our Inspera Health customer success story.

“The ability of our participants and coaches to see quantified data is critical to success,” says Glenn Murphy, Inspera Health’s CTO. “Our program isn’t based exclusively on technology, but we leverage Boomi, Salesforce, and Fitbit to show measured health outcomes. That’s our differentiator.”

Reducing Healthcare Costs with IT Modernization

Inspera Health’s approach is helping both its participants and its paying customers – employer organizations that provide healthcare coverage for employees and family members who may suffer from multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and others.

Corporate customers see a 30 percent reduction in healthcare costs for participants after 18 months, Inspera Health reports. That’s a sizable savings, especially as people with five or more chronic conditions are just 7 percent of the population, yet account for 20 percent of healthcare costs.

Inspera Health embarked on IT modernization in 2015 when it hired Murphy, a 17-year technology veteran at the business and IT consulting firm Accenture. Murphy spearheaded deployment of Salesforce Sales Cloud to manage opportunities, and Salesforce Community as a participant engagement platform.

Murphy credits IT consultancy Strategic Growth, a Salesforce and Boomi partner based in Texas, for helping Inspera Health get on the fast track to success.

“I’ve worked with a lot of implementation partners throughout my career, and Strategic Growth has been head and shoulders above the others,” Murphy says. “Strategic Growth’s communications, projects plans, and bringing actual developers into the conversation instead of an intermediate layer to translate requirements, was very valuable.”

Boomi Automation Eliminates 40 Hours of Manual Data Work

With Salesforce solutions deployed, the next step was bringing in Boomi for two key integrations. In the first integration, Inspera Health used Boomi to eliminate 40 hours a month of manual data work for Inspera Health’s skilled coaching and support staff.

Previously, participants would take a health survey in Salesforce Community, and Inspera Health staff would manually enter that data into external Insignia Health and Optum systems to generate a health score for each participant. Then, Inspera Health staff would enter the participant’s score in Salesforce Community.

“It would take 15 minutes a survey, and we were doing around 150 surveys a month,” Murphy explains. “It was a lot of monotonous, tedious work that staff dreaded, and you’d always have the risk of error.”

That data chore was eliminated with Boomi automating data exchange between Salesforce and Optum or Insignia, opening new time for staff to focus on more valuable work.

“With the Boomi integration, our very skilled employees are no longer spending their time doing data entry,” Murphy says. “Boomi has been a huge time saver.”

Fitbit IoT Metrics Improve Engagement and Health Outcomes

In a next move, Inspera Health began providing participants with Fitbit activity trackers and scales to measure weight, heart rate, and more. The Boomi AtomSphere Platform captures that information daily with authorized access to participant Fitbit accounts, and populates it into Salesforce Community for viewing by participants and Inspera Health coaches.

“With Fitbit and Boomi integration, our participants can very visually see the measurable progress they’re making, and so can our coaches,” Murphy says. “That information is critical in people being successful so that people can help themselves, and we can offer additional levels of support.”

The 360-degree participant view that Inspera Health has achieved with the Boomi AtomSphere Platform proved essential when COVID-19 struck, introducing new stresses into people’s lives. Inspera Health was able to easily spot a decline in some participant scores, prompting the company to offer additional support and coaching sessions every two weeks, rather than customary monthly sessions.

Murphy is gratified by Inspera Health’s selection of the Boomi AtomSphere Platform, which was based on the platform’s pre-built connectors, ease of use, speed of development and deployment, built-in HIPAA compliance, and the rich Boomi Community.

“I’m very pleased with our decision to leverage and use Boomi,” Murphy says. “Boomi has been proven to be very reliable, and prebuilt connectors mean you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for a new integration. Boomi has allowed us to simplify integration and stay even more connected with our participants.”

Read the Inspera Health customer success story to learn more about how Boomi is helping the company improve efficiencies and health outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs.