Two unrelated but insight-producing experiences came together for me during a recent spring break vacation with my family in Florida.

First was my daily visit to my favorite eatery, the SUGARCANE raw bar grill. The waiters have come to know my preferences, including my favorite table, drink and time of arrival.

During spring break, they took it to another level. I showed up at the usual time and saw my favorite drink and soup served at my favorite table prior to my arrival. This kind of service is going beyond a transactional relationship. It has the potential to turn a customer, especially a loyal one like me, into an engaged brand ambassador. Maybe even a brand evangelist. I’m writing about them so I guess I’ve already become one.

The second experience furthered my learning about “contextification” from the book Data Crush. Contextification is predicting and delivering a service based on location, time and individual preferences.

Today, we’re moving towards an experience-based economy, as implied by contextification. It’s a movement wherein people are being enculturated around how they experience products and services rather than the products and services themselves.

My restaurant experience is a great example of that. It goes beyond having a nice server, good food and timely service. It is an ability to predict and exceed your customers’ expectations through well-informed customer insights, resulting in a top-notch experience.

It’s About the Individual

So what do restaurant service and data concepts have to do with improving health care? Everything. If a restaurant has a better understanding of its customers’ needs, it can anticipate what they want, which leads to a stronger, more trusting relationship based around providing a perfect experience.

We have a transformational opportunity to do the same thing with the health plan members we serve as we help them on their health journey by identifying and acting on moments of influence. The more primary care physicians know about patients’ health – what patients should and, more importantly, should not be doing – they can better anticipate their needs, which can lead to a more engaged patient/doctor relationship.

The “nugget” in contextification is data analytics: using the data to identify where we can make a difference in these moments. Factor in the three main elements of contextification – location, time and individual preferences – and you have the potential to apply a more customized and refined approach to help people achieve their best health, as evidenced by these potential examples:

• Take “Joe”, a 65-year-old asthmatic who lives in the Ohio Valley, an environment well known for its high pollen count. What if we not only understood the factors that make Joe’s asthma most difficult for him, but could alert him necessary prevention steps based on weather and environmental conditions of his home? Contextification can enable Joe to take a more proactive approach when pollen season kicks in because he has a more detailed understanding of his environment and how changes at certain times of the year (pollen season) affect his health. In addition, proactively alerting Joe can address the situation before it becomes problematic for him.
• “Mindy”, a 45-year-old mother of two with a busy lifestyle, picks up an antibiotic at her local pharmacy prescribed to her by her primary care physician. Her pharmacy tells her this new drug could cause problems with another medication she is currently taking that was prescribed to her by a specialist. Mindy’s primary care physician was unaware of what her specialist had previously prescribed for Mindy. What if Mindy’s primary care physician had a more holistic view of her prescription history when issuing this script? Contextification will help ensure that Mindy’s primary care physician knows what she has been prescribed by her specialist.
• “Lewis”, a 70-year-old who has to re-order multiple medications every 30 days, could benefit from contextification. By putting RFID sensors in his medicine bottles, a signal could be relayed to the pharmacy every time Lewis opens the bottle to take a pill. So the next time Lewis closes his medicine bottle, he’ll receive a message from his retail or mail-order pharmacy letting him know his next refill is waiting for him or on the way to his home.

Things are not always what they seem, and data analytics can help identify factors that might not be obvious at first glance. For example, what if a person with a broken bone came into the emergency room (ER) and had data available that he or she had a metabolic condition requiring special modification of medicines to treat the pain. With data analytics, the ER doctor would know this right away, enabling him or her to take a highly personalized approach to treating the patient.

Going Beyond the Obvious

Today, many preventive solutions are already supported by nationally accepted medical guidelines on the most appropriate ways (improved blood pressure control, avoiding certain medications, strength and gait training) to help keep people on a path to good health. By taking a preventive approach, supported by data analytics, we can help people at risk navigate a healthier path.

But there is so much more we can do. To quote Data Crush, “Data is the currency of business.” This highlights the importance not only of our data analytics, but also – as importantly – the sources of that data, including mobile, social, purchasing and clinical.

The role of the cloud as a technology enabler, with mobile and social too, is important because the cloud enables companies to provide consumers access to their products and services with highly personalized context. The cloud is the only way in which the untapped power of analytics, the underpinnings of contextification, can truly come to life in an experience-based economy.

We’re on the cusp of a new era in data and it’s important it’s used correctly to help people live healthier lives.

Let’s Go There

The health care industry has a responsibility to lead and support how data analytics can be used to put the consumer at the center of the health care model. Speaking for myself, I have a basic understanding of the concept, but truly cannot envision all the applications for new sources of data (social, mobile, merging of health and non-health data, and much more).

The untapped power of data analytics, combined with the integration of consumer and clinical data development, can help health care become a truly consumer-focused business committed to helping people achieve their best possible health. As systems become more integrated and wearable devices provide physicians with more clinical information on a person’s health, the contextification examples I’ve outlined will become more widespread because of the holistic view that has been achieved. By identifying and acting on moments of influence, with the power of data analytics, we can help get people on the path to sustainably better health.

How we deliver the SUGARCANE experience to consumers is how health care and other industries in the future will be defined – and how the best companies will succeed.