Building the business case for an inclusive approach to digital health measurement (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The use of digital health measurement tools has grown substantially in recent years, and demand for these products is expected to grow further. However, there are concerns that the promised benefits from digital health products will not be shared equitably. Historically underserved populations such as those with lower education and income, the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals in rural areas, and those with disabilities may find such tools inaccessible or poorly suited for their needs. Because underserved populations shoulder a disproportionate share of the US disease burden, they also represent a substantial share of digital health measurement companies’ target markets. As such, inclusive principles should be core to the product development process to ensure that the resulting tools are broadly accessible and effective. In this context, inclusivity will not only maximize societal benefit, but can also lead to greater commercial success. OBJECTIVE A critical element in fostering inclusive product development is building the business case for why it is worthwhile. The DATAcc Market Opportunity Calculator was developed as an open access resource to enable digital health measurement product developers to build a business case for incorporating inclusive practices into their R&D processes. METHODS The DATAcc Market Opportunity calculator combines data on population demographics from the US Census, the American Community Survey, and the CDC Disability and Health Data System with data on disease prevalence and health status from the CDC National Health Information Survey and the CDC Disability and Health Data System. Together these data sources can be used to calculate the share of US adults with specific conditions (e.g., diabetes, hypertension) falling into various population segments along key “inclusion vectors” (e.g., race and ethnicity, disability status). RESULTS A free and open resource, the DATAcc Market Opportunity Calculator can be accessed from the DATAcc website. Users start by selecting the target health condition which their product addresses and an inclusion vector along which to segment the patient population. The calculator displays each segment as a share of the overall US adult population and its share specifically among adults with the target condition, quantifying the importance of underserved patient segments to the target market. For example, simplifying prompts on a hypertension-focused product to make it more accessible for adults with lower educational attainment is shown by the calculator to increase the target market by 2M people. The calculator also enables users to estimate the value of improvements to their product’s inclusivity by modeling the downstream impact on the size of the accessible market. For example, the calculator indicates that enabling compatibility of an arthritis-focused product with older phone models and low bandwidth connections to make it more accessible to low-income adults can increase potential revenue by 400M USD. CONCLUSIONS Digital health measurement is still in its infancy. Now is the time to establish an early precedent for inclusive product development in order to maximize societal benefit and build sustainable commercial returns. The DATAcc Market Opportunity Calculator can help build the business case for the “why” – showing how inclusivity can translate directly to expanded market size and financial opportunity. Once the decision has been made to pursue inclusive design, other components of the broader DATAcc toolkit for inclusive product development can help support the “how”. CLINICALTRIAL N/A