In the USA, more than 14 million children are impacted by obesity. Despite intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatments being found effective, gaps exist in moving these interventions into widespread use. Focusing on market viability could improve the dissemination and sustainment of interventions. The purpose of this paper is to outline the process and results of our market viability assessment for the Healthy Weight Clinic (HWC), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recognized Family Health Weight Program. We conducted a market viability assessment using the Speeding Research-test INTerventions (SPRINT) program to gain insights into the commercialization and marketplace for the HWC. Through the process of customer discovery, we interviewed 50 stakeholders to test our hypotheses pertaining to our business model. Key takeaways were the need for packaged interventions that offer support and training for providers, and interventions that are multidisciplinary and located within the medical home. We also learned that (i) the intervention goals must align with the healthcare organization's performance metrics; (ii) services need to be reimbursable; and (iii) the importance of understanding different customer segments (i.e. program users vs. organization decision-makers) and their unique needs. The market viability assessment is a critical step to transforming the HWC into a viable commercial product. The process we have outlined is replicable by others and by encouraging other teams to design for dissemination we can increase the number of evidence-based, packaged IHBLTs available to children with obesity.
Keywords: childhood obesity; dissemination; implementation science; market viability; pediatric weight management intervention.
In the USA, more than 14 million children are impacted by obesity but few evidence-based interventions are available in the pediatric primary care setting. Focusing on the market viability of evidence-based, intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatments (IHBLT) could improve their dissemination and sustainment. The purpose of this paper is to outline the process and results of our market viability assessment of an intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment, the Healthy Weight Clinic (HWC), a recognized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Family Healthy Weight Program. We enrolled in the Speeding Research-test INTerventions (SPRINT) program to understand how to market the HWC by understanding customers’ perspectives. Key takeaways include the need for packaged, multidisciplinary interventions in the medical home, ensuring the intervention is reimbursable and aligned with organization’s performance metrics, and the importance of knowing customer segments and their needs. This paper addresses the gap pertaining to the market viability of pediatric IHBLT and provides a real-world example of how to conduct an assessment. Additionally, it outlines the process and provides the steps necessary for other researchers to understand the market forces that may impact the viability of their intervention.
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