Improving outcomes through patient motivation

Johnson & Johnson’s president of health and wellness solutions Len Greer

The main focus for Johnson & Johnson’s health and wellness solutions president Len Greer is getting patients motivated to improve overall health outcomes. Aside from the company’s partnership with IBM Watson, Greer said Johnson & Johnson is undertaking efforts to apply behavioral science in such disease states as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease to improve patient health.

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Greer said that one of the most important ways to get patients motivated about their own health is to look for an intrinsic motivation, using solutions that get “a little deeper into the mind-set of the individual” to figure out their motivation to lead a healthy life.



“If you can get someone to say ‘It’s important to me to manage this condition because this is what I’m trying to do,’ that gives them the fuel — the energy — to carry through all of those very challenging journeys that they’ve faced as a result of these conditions or risk factors,” he said.



But in order to find a patient’s motivation, companies need a lot of data — and a customer’s trip to Walmart, with all of their decisions and buying patterns, Greer said, is a prime example of a source for figuring out an individual’s driving force and tailoring the experience to them.



“Because of that, you have a huge opportunity to get them some additional motivation and a huge amount of data created that can give you what you need to predict ... what really might motivate them,” Greer said.