The Healthcare Consumer Is Expecting More
Insights from this year’s Connected Health Summit
This past week, over 300 healthcare business and clinical executives gathered in San Diego for the Connected Health Summit. Hosted by the global research firm Parks Associates, this year’s conference spotlighted the innovative health technologies that are changing healthcare. Conversa Health was asked to speak at the event and I was honored to represent our company, which is made up of a passionate group of Health Transformers.
Parks Associates wanted this event to focus on the impact that connected solutions are having on healthcare systems and to create discussion around strategic insights into consumer engagement, care accountability, service innovations, and platform design. The event did not disappoint, as many case studies and examples were shared — from strategies and tactics to the business case for connected health.
Most of the attendees agreed that the healthcare consumer is expecting more than just an episodic care “transaction.” According to Parks Associates research, more than 70% of consumers would not wait more than 15 minutes when reaching out to medical professionals for real-time voice or video consultations. Their research also showed that 72% of consumers using text messaging and secure email would prefer a response within two hours.
This should not surprise us, as consumers are now living within a complex network of relationships characteristic of an “on-demand/always on” culture. Healthcare is still earning the trust and credibility to be a part of this network.
A key implication here is around the doctor-patient relationship. We have seen healthcare innovators like Northwell, Ochsner, Carolinas Healthcare, and Citrus Valley embrace the evolution of the relationship between care teams and patients. These organizations and many others represented at the Connected Health Summit recognize that to meet new patient satisfaction requirements and value-based care standards, it’s imperative they implement patient-centric tools that enhance patient-provider communication. They realize they can utilize technology to better manage healthcare experiences across the care continuum, while making an intentional, strategic shift to transforming the doctor-patient relationship from one that is episodic to one that is continuous, efficient, and collaborative.
Another related topic at the event was the significant shift from manual to automated patient engagement. Industry research is showing that hospitals and health systems have begun making significant investments in digital patient engagement tools to help transform the way patients and family members are engaged, educated, and empowered. More and more providers are using this technology to enable their care management programs to be dynamic, evidence-based, and personalized — and this is creating new value opportunities in healthcare.
Conversa’s Conversation Platform was cited as an example that directly advances this significant manual-to-automated shift by improving how patients and care teams communicate around key health experiences like chronic condition management, post discharge, pre- and post-surgery, patient education, medication adherence, scheduling appointments, and lifestyle health coaching.
As organizations advance their connected health initiatives, we all need to remember that we are not creating “episodic transactions for our healthcare patients” — we are creating personalized and conversational experiences for our consumer relationships. Conversa is at the center of this transformation, creating a more personalized and proactive engagement experience by enabling healthcare organizations to leverage real-time patient generated data and insights to meet individuals where they are.
Chris Edwards is the Chief Marketing & Experience Officer at Conversa Health, which health systems are referring to as “healthcare’s AI care navigator.” Chris has been running global strategy and marketing for healthcare technology B2B and B2C companies for over 20 years. He has been a thought leader and industry speaker at many international digital health events over the last several years. He has a passion to help healthcare deliver better experiences, and can be followed on twitter @chrissedwards.
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