Consumers have access to an enormous number of choices in nearly every aspect of their lives. In this flood of information, individuals require convenience and value in the form of a highly personalized experience, in order to take action. Many industries have responded to the need, and personalization is now the status quo in our entertainment, banking, education, and shopping experiences.

Consumers are demanding the same from their healthcare experiences, but the industry has not kept up. What’s unique about healthcare? In every space, personalization is derived from machine learning built on top of massive amounts of data; but in healthcare–with exceptionally high standards for privacy and security, complex data silos as a result of our fragmented system, and vested interests in not sharing information–data is much less liquid than it is in other industries.

Employers are, as usual, some of the first to feel the pain. According to a recent survey conducted by the Castlight and National Business Group on Health®, 84 percent of large employers agree that personalization is key to driving employee engagement in health benefits and wellness programs, yet less than 24 percent are delivering personalized recommendations to their employees.

We designed the Castlight Genius personalization engine to address this issue and offer users a deeply personal and meaningful experience. With access to individualized claims data from nearly every major health plan in the country, along with demographics, health goals, preferences, and digital health behaviors, Castlight has a uniquely comprehensive data set to start with. We use this data to derive targeted and actionable recommendations at the individual level, predicting health needs and teeing up the highest value course of action.

For example, Castlight Genius layers in biographical and demographic information–such as learning from a user’s claims history that she has a claim indicating moderate anxiety–along with information submitted through the app, such as a completed health assessment indicating interest in stress management. Based on the information compiled, the user receives a tailored email recommending a resilience program offered by her employer, and information on what mental health coverage is available.

Castlight Genius is able to drive three-times the engagement with our platform compared to non-personalized content, and has proven to double the use of preventative services related to back pain, colorectal cancer, and diabetes, among other key health areas.

Interested to learn about how personalization can help your employees achieve their health goals? Read our latest report, Employer Perspectives on Personalization in Digital Health.