CareMessage

CareMessage Background

CareMessage is a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower healthcare organizations with mobile technologies to improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of care. CareMessage’s technology acts as a bridge between the patient/caregiver and the healthcare organization, typically defined as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Free and Charitable Clinic, health system or health plan. For the healthcare organization, CareMessage’s cloud-based platform enables staff members to customize and automate various kinds of interventions at the individual and population health levels. The patient/caregiver receives targeted and interactive alerts, reminders and notifications through text and voice messaging. CareMessage’s ‘smart’ software also enables resource-constrained providers to empower patients struggling with chronic diseases to improve their health through interactive and educational disease management-focused messaging. CareMessage currently works with 171 healthcare organizations in 33 states nationwide.

 

Why Text Messaging

Research shows that 90% of American adults own a cell phone and 81% use their cell phone to send or receive text messages, making it the most prevalent cell phone activity of all time. Approximately 84% of households earning less than $30,000 per year have a cell phone while only 52% have internet at home. Nearly all (98%) of text messages are opened by the receiver compared to an open rate of 17% for e-mail. One study showed that income was inversely proportional to texts sent and received - low-income households texted approximately 59 times per day compared to their higher-income peers who texted on average 32 times a day. In addition, less educated participants sent and received text messages more than those with a higher education. Only 34% of households earning less than $10,000 have a smartphone while 78% of households earning less than $30,000 can send and receive texts. Furthermore, the literature shows that many people in low-income communities are interested in receiving health information via text and the vast majority of individuals participating in these programs are satisfied with the text messaging programs.

 

Focus on Underserved Populations 

Chronic disease prevention and management presents a massive challenge and opportunity for healthcare. This is particularly true for patients that are low income and underserved. In fact, CareMessage is designed to serve high-risk populations, specifically low-income and non-English speaking patients with low levels of health literacy. All of CareMessage’s pre-developed content is written at a 6th grade reading level or below and is available in both English and Spanish, with support for an additional 30 languages. Our product development team has expertise in the fields of software development, design, and public health. Additionally, members of the product development team have native fluency in Spanish, ensuring that all CareMessage programs accommodate the linguistic needs of our minority patients. Our research and data science team brings expertise in the fields of medicine, epidemiology and public health to drive informed, evidence-based decisions about CareMessage’s clinical products.