{"id":12905,"date":"2020-04-30T11:45:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T15:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/pager-a-digital-doctor-in-every-patients-family\/"},"modified":"2020-04-30T11:45:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T15:45:36","slug":"pager-a-digital-doctor-in-every-patients-family","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/pager-a-digital-doctor-in-every-patients-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Pager: A Digital Doctor in Every Patient\u2019s Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pagers were once popular among professionals and consumers alike but now mostly appear in our lives when a TV or movie director needs to establish that a scene takes place in the early 90\u2019s. However, there is one arena where pagers remain widely used: hospitals, around 80% of which still regularly utilize pagers. Though there are some benefits to continued hospital pager use even in our increasingly digital world \u2013 for example long battery life and low hacking vulnerability \u2013 in part their persistent presence in medical facilities is a symptom of the slow-moving and incredibly complex nature of hospital operations and technology adoption.<\/p>\n

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The Evolution of a Pager (Image Source 1<\/a>, Image Source 2<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Pager, a New York-based digital health start-up is seeking to disrupt the antiquated hospital communication system with a modern solution that streamlines collaboration between patients and care teams. Founded in 2014 by Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar, the company has raised $62M and partnered with health systems covering over 10 million patients around the world.<\/p>\n

Value Proposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patients<\/u><\/p>\n

For patients, Pager promises to streamline navigation and communication with various parties during the course of care by creating a single chat stream combining voice, chat, video, and photos to collaborate with nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and customer service to coordinate elements ranging from virtual care, scheduling, prescriptions, and payments. The goal is to create an incredible user experience that mimics having a \u201cdoctor in the family\u201d by unifying traditionally fragmented healthcare interactions into a single streamlined thread.<\/p>\n

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Patient Journey without Pager (Image Source<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Patient Journey with Pager (Image Source<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Hospitals<\/u><\/p>\n

For providers, Pager enables rapid implementation of a comprehensive digital solution that has myriad benefits. By digitizing interactions and incorporating artificial intelligence, Pager claims to increase utilization of virtual care to 66%, save hospitals $327 per chat, and improve call center productivity by 2-3x. Moreover, Pager has demonstrated that improved customer experience translates into improved patient compliance, as its members attend scheduled appointments 92% of the time compared to the approximately 70% industry standard.<\/p>\n

Business Model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long before COVID-19, Pager designed its business model to simultaneously promote agility and defensibility. Specifically, there are three key features of the model that laid the groundwork to enable their rapid COVID-19 response:<\/p>\n