Q&A Series, Question 4:

What are some case examples of how BurstIQ delivers real value in the real world?

Many people take medications that don’t work very well for them, but those meds are prescribed because they are cheaper, have fewer side effects, or other reasons. But we know that the person’s outcome would likely be much better, and the insurer or self-insured employer would save money in the long run, if they prescribed something that was more effective for that individual. To address this, BurstIQ formed a joint venture with BH Genetic Services  and Aeon Global Labs that enables self-insured employers to offer pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing as part of their employee wellness program. BurstIQ’s platform uses machine intelligence to identify individuals who would be likely to benefit from the test, and then the platform manages the entire testing process, from ordering to results. The person’s care team can use the PGx results to optimize their medication regimen – which not only improves the person’s health and quality of life, but also saves money for the employer. And by using the BurstIQ platform, the employer only orders the test for people who actually need it – saving additional cost.

Health systems tend to see significant variation in procedures between different providers in their network. Some doctors like to do it one way, others like to do it a different way. The problem with this is two-fold: First, higher variation means higher cost for the health system. If two doctors like to use two different types of kits in the OR, the health system has to keep both types of kits on hand, rather than being able to buy one type of kit in bulk (at lower cost). It also means that there could be significant lost revenue if one doctor does the procedure using a method that costs more but achieves the same clinical outcome. BurstIQ is partnering with an analytics and consulting company that focuses on health system optimization and cost recovery. The company will use BurstIQ’s data analytics engine and platform to identify areas where health systems can optimize their practices, reduce variability and recover lost revenue. The value of this has already been demonstrated – one healthcare system saw $100 million in cost savings and recovered revenue using this solution.

Lastly, the BurstIQ platform makes it significantly easier to create intelligent consumer-facing digital health solutions. For example, there are a number of companies trying to use movement detection technologies to predict fall risk in elderly populations. These solutions typically analyze a person’s gait to set a baseline and then monitor changes. The BurstIQ platform gives these companies access to large, diverse data sets and machine intelligence, allowing them to discover non-obvious predictors of frailty and incorporate these factors into their predictive algorithms.