Why Digital Health Pilots Fail: UC Davis Health’s Dr. Reshma Gupta
A lot of digital health pilots do not fail because the idea is bad. They fail because the care model, workflow, staffing, and financial design were never fully built.
This episode features a presentation from the ROI-Centered Care Summit, produced by Bright Spots Ventures in partnership with TytoCare and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).
In this episode, Reshma Gupta, MD, Chief of Population Health and Accountable Care at UC Davis Health, shares why so many AI and digital health pilots stall, and what it takes to redesign them into models that are operationally viable, financially sustainable, and built to scale.
Using UC Davis Health’s hypertension remote patient monitoring program as a case study, Reshma walks through what broke in the original pilot, including slower ramp-up, unclear vendor role design, returned device logistics, and delayed billing capture. She then explains how her team rebuilt the program into a 6-month model with clearer workflows, stronger local clinical support, and a more sustainable financial structure.
You’ll hear how UC Davis:
- Redesigned RPM with a local MA, RN, pharmacist, clinician support, and vendor MA model
- Built a 6-month patient journey with education, medication review, and monthly nurse and pharmacy visits
- Improved blood pressure outcomes from 146/81 pre-enrollment to 126/73 at program completion
- Reframed success around workflow fit, patient engagement, billing discipline, and ROI
Key topics include why pilots fail, how to match the model to the right patient population, the importance of role clarity and billing optimization, and what health systems should think through before launching the next digital health program.
If you are a health system leader, population health executive, digital health leader, or care transformation strategist trying to move beyond pilots and into sustainable performance, this episode offers a practical blueprint grounded in real-world lessons.
