Key Takeaways
- Evaluation is a powerful tool for digital health companies to demonstrate impact, enhance program design, and strengthen their value proposition for fundraising and sales efforts.
- The new toolkit, developed by CHCF and the Center for Community Health and Evaluation, provides a structured approach to evaluation with special attention to health equity and Medicaid populations.
- Companies can access practical resources including an Evaluation Planning Workbook and Evaluation Planning Case Study, organized across five key sections from readiness assessment to implementation.
Evaluating your digital health company can provide numerous benefits. An evaluation can enhance program design or implementation by identifying effective and ineffective elements. It can also demonstrate impact by proving your ability to deliver outcomes. Additionally, it can strengthen your marketing materials by incorporating data that support your value proposition as well as aid in fundraising, sales, and grant writing efforts.
The California Health Care Foundation, in partnership with the Center for Community Health and Evaluation, has created an evaluation toolkit specifically designed for founders of digital health companies whose products aim to improve health outcomes or promote health equity. Although the examples in the toolkit focus primarily on start-ups serving Medicaid patients, the content can apply to a wide range of populations.
This toolkit can be used as a self-directed resource, a one-on-one coaching tool, or a collaborative learning tool to support the formal design of evaluations. It integrates equitable evaluation principles throughout, emphasizing the importance of equity in all aspects of the evaluation process.
The evaluation toolkit is organized into five sections:
- Assess Readiness to Evaluate
- Establish an Evaluation Vision
- Determine the Evaluation Design
- Prepare for Launch and Implementation
- Resources & About CCHE
Additionally, the toolkit includes an Evaluation Planning Workbook, which contains worksheets referenced in the toolkit, along with an Evaluation Planning Case Study.
Authors & Contributors
Elena “Noon” Kuo, PhD
Senior Evaluation and Learning Consultant
Maggie Jones, MPH
Director, at the Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE). CCHE designs and evaluates health-related programs and initiatives across the United States.
Grant Clark
Communications Specialist
Melissa Trapp Petty
Evaluation Division Manager
