What does personalized Healthcare mean? Why is it a powerful and growing trend? What are the most interesting examples and applications? That’s what we’ll talk about in this post.
Most everyone puts health and wellness first. And these factors are all the more important today, in these complicated times when the world is engaged in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted our daily lives in big and small ways, impacting all areas, from global institutions, to the manufacturing world, in all its sectors.
This is also why the Pharma and Healthcare sectors are taking on an increasingly important and decisive role.
But that’s not all. These sectors, in fact, are experiencing a phase of great change, which began well before this pandemic. These changes have been triggered by several simultaneous factors, and the most decisive of these is certainly Digital Transformation, which has revolutionized the very world in which we live. The “fuel” of the digital revolution is the enormous availability of information that can be collected, analyzed, and interpreted. According to the most up-to-date estimates, every person on Earth today produces 1.7 megabytes of data every second. You read that right: every second. In general, 2.5 quintillion gigabytes of data are generated every day.
In this new world, companies must keep this in mind: from data we must then move on to people, who must really be put at the center of business, and this goes for businesses of all types. In short, data must be transformed into relationships.
Now, let’s tighten the focus back to the Healthcare Industry.
We opened the article by saying that health and wellness, today, are more important to people than ever before. The next step is that people themselves expect increasingly tailored treatment from companies in the sector. They expect to be treated as individuals with whom to communicate, and they are no longer the passive consumer of years ago. Today’s consumers expect to receive clear, simple, and transparent information. They expect a digital, omnichannel Customer Experience, with fast processes and one-to-one interaction.
That’s where the personalized healthcare revolution starts. It’s all about digitization combined with personalization. All this, of course, has advantages on the consumer side, but also on the company side. The dynamic is truly win-win.
Of course, it’s mostly about redesigning your processes and learning to see the opportunities that come with this shift, and then going out and seizing them, gaining reputation, client loyalty, and competitive advantage as a result and the margins are really huge.
In this post, we will take a look at the dynamics of Personalized Healthcare, from data collection, to building a new way of communicating with customers and patients. Finally, we will introduce some successful examples, which bring interesting elements for reflection.
But first, in the next section, let’s examine the expectations of people who interface with companies in the field.
> EBOOK – The healthcare sector and digital transformation: New trends and opportunities to be seized
What people want
We have already pointed out above that today it is the customers themselves who are asking companies to get increasingly “closer”. It is consumers who expect personalization, together with a smart and tailored use of new technologies and this is even more true for the Healthcare sector.
Of course, it’s not us saying this, but the data.
Consider, for example, the data that emerged from a 2019 study by Salesforce, which involved a sample of 6,000 people. 83% of respondents said that their experience of communicating with the company is as important as the products. 68% believe a real-time dialog is essential (which, of course, is only made possible with a decisive digital shift). More specifically, 69% of these prefer text messages. 55% prefer live chat and instant messaging. 38% use video chat.
Interestingly, it’s mostly younger segments that have these kinds of expectations. An example? For 83% of millennials, Healthcare apps are a critical tool (versus 49% of baby boomers).
Now, based on these expectations, how are Healthcare companies rated? Not highly.
In fact, according to the same survey, 47% of people think healthcare companies are more focused on industry processes than on people’s needs and wants. And 60% say the communications they receive from Healthcare companies are not meaningful or relevant to them.
In short, compared to other sectors, there is still a long way to go. The good news, however, is that there are enormous opportunities to be seized.
But where should we (re)start from? The answer is simple: from the knowledge of one’s target.
The first step? Know who you have in front of you
Consumers increasingly want personalized, high-tech healthcare; we’ve seen it. As a result, the first step for companies in the industry is very simple (on paper): Get to know the people they are targeting, their demographic, geographic and behavioral characteristics. But that’s not all: it’s very important to consider how these characteristics and behaviors change over time, how they modify with the onset of new variables.
Data collection, in short, must have a dynamic approach and be as real-time as possible. But where does one find all this information? In so many “places”.
- In hospitals, first of all: and here the great theme of digitization of medical records comes into play, on which there is still a long way to go (01health.it).
- Then there are the digitized systems that are becoming increasingly widespread in medical practices and institutional bodies (a trend that, during the pandemic, has seen a marked acceleration).
- Then there is a constantly expanding pool of apps dedicated to Healthcare, which collect very in-depth and dynamic data.
- And then there’s the frontier of the Internet of Things, especially on the wearable medical device side. This is a growing market, which was valued at $7.8 million in 2017, and is expected to be worth more than $27 million by 2023 (globenswire.com).
- Finally, there is the possibility for brands to interface directly with people, through different channels, such as their website, using effective customer support and CRM systems, but also through ad hoc apps, social networks, and email campaigns.
In short, as you can see from this quick overview, today there are many sources of information. Everything lies in the ability to cross these data and interpret them in a functional way, embracing an omnichannel perspective.
The second step? Turning data into relationships
Such an impressive amount of data, of course, needs analysis and interpretation tools based on the most advanced Artificial Intelligence systems, which in turn exploit the computing power (very “elastic”) made available by Cloud Computing, which today has become indispensable.
What is important to understand is that every business and every company must learn to calibrate these tools in a way that is functional to their own characteristics and objectives. There is no universal recipe that is valid for everyone, but all strategies must point in the same direction: divide your target into smaller and smaller clusters, with consistent and uniform characteristics, to target with tailored communications and actions.
The final objective?
Personalization, that is, one-to-one dialog, which leads to a close relationship between company and customer, and therefore to a very high level of loyalty. This is the heart of personalized healthcare.
There are many ways to conduct this dialog, and one of the most effective is by creating personalized videos. This is what Doxee does, with its Doxee Pvideo®, a powerful tool for companies in the sector.
Three interesting examples
Let’s close this post by quickly telling you about three different examples of personalized Healthcare.
1. Let’s start with a joint venture between multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and Glooko, a digital health company. These two leading companies have collaborated to create Cornerstone4Care, a website and smartphone application dedicated specifically to diabetic patients. Through this system, people can monitor their blood sugar readings and, based on this and other individual data (very well protected, of course), receive personalized advice for their diet, exercise and daily management of the disease.
2. The second example involves the world of maternity and concerns one of the most advanced American hospitals. We’re talking about Orlando Health, with its Newborn Services. With this platform, new mothers can choose the topics they are interested in and receive personalized emails based on these interests. They can also have the answers to their questions delivered directly to their inbox: authoritative and scientifically sound answers. This service is extremely effective, also because it is based on a vast amount of personal data provided by users, and stored in maximum security.
3. With the last example, however, we move to the side of Artificial Intelligence. The Your.MD app is a virtual assistant based on algorithms capable of cross-referencing data from medical literature related to over 1,000 health problems. Users can use a personalized chat, within which bots provide accurate and tailored answers to their questions. The last step is the most interesting one: after identifying the potential problems of the individual, the system directs the user to the best doctors in his area.
And so the circle closes: from the digital world we return to the human relationship, with advantages on all fronts. With the most advanced technologies, in short, the patient finally returns to the center of focus!
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