No one can deny that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the world. It changed the way people live, work, and play. It also put an increased emphasis on health, and consumers are starting to play a more active role in their healthcare than ever before.
In simple terms, consumers are learning more about health risks and taking control of their health data by changing their attitudes towards data privacy. More importantly though, consumers are increasingly communicating with their doctors in new and diverse ways.
Technology plays a large part in this shift. Therefore, healthcare providers and facilities must incorporate the relevant technologies into their digital platforms and channels to best cater to the evolving needs of consumers and patients.
All these factors will play a significant role in shaping healthcare for the future. So, how is healthcare bound to change in the years to come? In this blog, we’ll examine this question in more detail.
So, what exactly is the future of healthcare? Consumers are acting proactively and preventatively to improve their health, increasingly seeking out medical information online.
Healthcare practitioners are also incorporating medical information into their websites, which empowers consumers with relevant and valuable information they can use on their road to wellness.
Technology also gives consumers new and innovative ways to track their health and make better decisions for their care. Having access to their electronic medical records ensures they can take ownership of their data and have a clear picture of their medical history and care path.
So, how does technology empower consumers to take control of their health? Let’s take a closer look.
New technologies have emerged which increasingly allow consumers to measure and maintain their health. In fact, 40% of consumers in the US said that they use technology tools to measure their fitness and track their health improvements. To do this, they use a variety of tools like smartphones, apps, personal medical devices, and fitness monitors.
Among these consumers, 70% believe that using a device to track their health will help them change their behaviour. Also, about half of these consumers shared the data they gathered from a fitness or monitoring device with their doctors.
Ultimately, consumers are taking control of their own health and enabling their doctors to improve the standard of preventative care empowered by this data.
Telemedicine and virtual visits were already gaining traction, but were thrust into the spotlight when the Covid-19 pandemic broke.
Telemedicine helps expand access to high-quality healthcare at times when patients are restricted from seeing their doctors, due to external factors, lack of access, or mobility issues. As a result, the rapid adoption of telemedicine in recent years has been astonishing: the industry has grown from 11% of consumers using telemedicine pre-pandemic, to 46% of consumers using it during the pandemic.
While this surge in telemedicine’s popularity has been mainly driven by consumers wanting to avoid exposure to COVID-19, interest remains strong. In fact, 70% of consumers indicate that they are highly likely to use telemedicine platforms and services even after the pandemic. It’s estimated that the future telemedicine market could be worth up to $250 billion.
As a result, telemedicine and virtual visits will be a significant part of the future delivery of healthcare services. For this reason, it will require new ways of working by healthcare providers. To improve their position in the market, they’ll need to take the necessary steps now.
Considering that 57% of healthcare providers are now more favourable to telemedicine than they were before the pandemic, it needs no mention that it enables them to see more patients and provide better care.
Despite this, some consumers still feel that there are gaps in the virtual visit process. For this reason, practioners need to be able to deliver a hybrid care model incorporating in-person health services.
Self-service technologies can improve in-person visits to hospitals and clinics.
Increasingly popular in the healthcare industry, the patient experience can benefit from more convenient and effective care delivery by using the same self-service technologies consumers are experiencing in all other parts of their life. For example, consumers can self-checkout at a grocery store, pay bills from their laptops or mobile devices, or deposit money through apps on their smartphones.
As a result, they gravitate towards businesses that let them do tasks at their own convenience and save time in the process.
Healthcare providers will need to implement these features into their range of services to give patients the digital experience they expect. It also enables consumers to take control of a part of their healthcare. This then serves to improve patient satisfaction scores and offers consumers a more enjoyable and convenient overall experience.
Below are some self-service options healthcare practitioners can provide on-site at care facilities to improve the patient experience:
If providers succeed, they’ll be able to give their patients the desired experience and convenience while reducing costs, increasing efficiencies, and collecting more accurate patient data to further grow their practice.
We’ve mainly looked at the future of healthcare from the patient or consumer perspective and highlighted some things providers should implement to improve care delivery.
Patients and consumers are ready to embrace a self-service culture in healthcare for the convenience and choice it gives them, enabling them to play an active part in their own healthcare.
But what about the perspective of the practitioner? Considering the increasing shift to self-service, practitioners and other healthcare administrators will need to adjust their services and ways of working to meet consumer expectations.
Here are some additional tips for healthcare providers and medical practitioners to help integrate technological tools into their care delivery processes:
This will enable healthcare providers to monitor patient care more effectively and provide consumers with more convenient care. In turn, this results in better consumer satisfaction and improved adherence to treatment plans.
Although consumers are now more likely to share their health data, the challenge remains that this data is often spread across a variety of channels. Providers should take the necessary steps to unite this data into one unified platform, giving consumers and practitioners consolidated access to all their medical information in one place.
As shown above, telemedicine and virtual visits will grow exponentially in the years to come. Healthcare providers should re-examine existing processes and give consumers access to their own physicians via virtual platforms, instead of relying on third-party services. This could cause a more remarkable shift in habits favouring virtual visits, and dispelling consumers of the view that they need to be seen solely in-person.
Although patients and consumers are more willing to share their data now, this might change post-pandemic. Healthcare providers should implement the necessary digital strategies to build trust with their patients and make them feel comfortable sharing their health data. Ultimately, the services mentioned above rely on this data, and consumer trust will be necessary to provide effective services in the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the healthcare industry. Consumer needs shifted from a more traditional approach to adopting a self-service culture. This shift involves using diverse new technologies to monitor and track their health and interact with medical professionals.
As a result, healthcare providers and facilities will need to take action now to adapt to this shift and provide consumers with the choice, convenience, and ease of use they expect, whether it’s as simple as incorporating valuable and relevant healthcare information into a website or providing an all-in-one digital solution for patient check-in.
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