Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | August 16, 2023
The healthcare industry is experiencing rapid shifts. Some of this is due to the current pandemic, but much of this evolution was happening even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Understanding and embracing the introduction of new technology into the market will be important for healthcare professionals and patients alike. Here are some of the trends worth keeping tabs on:
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Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | July 14, 2023
The use of technology in hospitals has been increasing for the last decade and at present, it has reached an all-time high. However, it may be surprising to realize that the healthcare supply chain management (SCM) area of hospitals has not fully embraced technology. According to a survey conducted among 100 hospitals recently, nearly half of these hospitals use less sophisticated/outdated tools or manual processes, such as Excel spreadsheets, to manage supply expenses, inventory, and other supply chain activities.
According to the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), healthcare supply chain management costs will surpass labor costs shortly for the number one position. But there is good news; similar surveys show potential for significant healthcare supply chain management cost savings. For example, an analysis by Navigant consulting estimates that, by standardizing and streamlining the healthcare supply chain management processes, hospitals can save an average of US$11 million per hospital or 17.7% annually.
What is Healthcare Supply Chain Management
Procurement, distribution, and movement of products and services from the receiving deck to the patient encompass the process of healthcare supply chain management.
There are a lot of challenges in healthcare supply chain management processes. The major issues include demand for specific types of product in inventory, hoarding of supplies, out-of-stock issues that may lead to expensive delivery charges, product expirations, unwarranted increase in inventory dollars based on demand, and pilferage, among others. These issues may contribute to out-of-budget supply costs.
Healthcare supply chain management is an extremely complex process. Poor product standardization, inadequate data reporting, a lack of automation throughout the process, and increasing regulatory requirements only add to the difficulties. Thus, an easy way to get rid of all these complexities is to incorporate advanced technologies in the healthcare supply chain management process.
Healthcare Supply Chain Management Technology
Advanced healthcare supply chain management technologies are developed to transform the supply chain process to a more efficient one by automating repetitive manual tasks in hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Minimizing waste, enabling timely data-based decision-making, streamlining inventory, and reducing labour, supply, and operational costs are the major benefits of healthcare supply chain management software.
There are mainly two types of healthcare supply chain management technology solutions, enterprise resource planning systems and niche healthcare inventory and healthcare supply chain management solutions.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems
ERP systems are not the best for healthcare supply chain management specifically because these systems are used in many industries. Also, the concerned vendors often do not have the required healthcare expertise. As this is mainly implemented by larger and non-healthcare related businesses, it may take a longer time to implement. Also, it requires dedicated customization resources. This makes it inflexible for the healthcare industry supply chain management.
Niche Healthcare Inventory and Supply Chain Solutions
This type is known as the best-of-breed healthcare supply chain management solutions. They provide healthcare-directed and flexible solutions as they are affordable and incorporate deeper industry knowledge. These systems can also focus on specific areas such as interventional medicine, surgery, and other healthcare departments.
Why Should Hospitals Invest in Healthcare SCM Technology
Although hospitals and other healthcare organizations have demonstrated excellent performance in fighting COVID-19, the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the present healthcare supply chain management process. Supply shortages, especially lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), highlighted how poor healthcare supply chain management affected healthcare providers. The underlying concern behind the supply shortage is that hospitals’ supply chains are not well prepared for the future of healthcare. Organizations are depending upon old models, which are not innovative, agile, or advanced enough to cater to the requirements of the modern data and technology-driven world.
Automating Healthcare supply chain management will be a major differentiator for hospitals at present and in future, impacting all aspects, including brand reputation, consumer trust, and quality of care. Healthcare leaders, such as organization heads and hospital administrators, require a new healthcare supply chain management system to deliver care at a lower cost. To realize this requirement, they have to make bold decisions and speed up the transformation of their healthcare supply chain.
Acceleration of healthcare supply chain management transformation will be grounded in many imperatives, which are related to process, people, and technology. The digital transformation focusing on these areas will fasten the long-term growth and sustainability of healthcare supply chain management.
Digital Transformation to Raise Healthcare Supply Chain to New Levels
The Healthcare industry has given importance, other than information systems and key enterprise technologies, to electronic health record platforms in the last decade. Currently, the healthcare industry is on the brink of a digital revolution. Several technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), are opening new doors for healthcare organizations to evolve to a level beyond anything previously imagined. It will surely affect healthcare supply chain management.
However, the healthcare supply chain has not yet kept pace with changing technologies. To create a fully developed supply chain, hospitals should find innovative ways to integrate their physical process with digital data. Hospitals should start using tools such as predictive analytics along with digital statistics and information to drive decisions.
Investing in this technology integrated healthcare supply chain management, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations will help achieve optimal benefits. However, it needs an efficient deployment of new technologies, such as the integration of ML and AI, and maintain a functioning healthcare system.
Collaboration Between People and Technology for Better Results
Years of operating in traditional systems has delayed the progress of healthcare supply chain management. As the consequences of running out of stock can be devastating in the healthcare system, leaders and clinical professionals have to look at supply chain differently. The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated and strengthened the necessity of better collaboration. Now leaders need to act timely to solidify these changes, brought out by the pandemic, to stop people reverting to behaviours that were problematic in the past.
Automation will make the future of the workforce and supply chain workflows more efficient. The greatness of the impact on future healthcare supply chain management performance depends upon the greatness of the automation of work. Hospitals should highly focus on technology to perform various repetitive tasks, including delivering patient food trays, gathering supplies and bringing them to caregivers, picking case carts, and transporting supply carts to storage rooms. Staff efficiency is increased, when repetitive tasks and predictable work are automated and performed by robots. This helps staff focus on more complex tasks that drive innovation and value.
Digital transformation occurs only when there is strong leadership and a conducive culture. Hospitals should realize the value of data in decision making and change their view about the supply chain leader. Modern healthcare supply chain management leaders are those who excel in education, governance, collaboration and communication, and change management. In hospitals, the supply chain management leader position should be elevated to executive level and they should be capable of using modern technologies for effectively handling the healthcare supply chain management process.
The Future of Supply Chain Operations
The sole aim of effective healthcare supply chain management has been finding the lowest cost products for the end-user without considering much about the profit of the manufacturer. The alarming product shortages and supply chain disruptions during the pandemic have changed that. Now, leaders are much more focused on how to diversify manufacturer product origins.
Technological advancements and digital transformation will encourage the efforts to evolve vendor and inventory management, which is evident in procure-to-pay strategies. In case of procure-to-pay strategies, hospitals can reduce cost and increase efficiency by integrating technology assistance in areas such as accounts payable, including invoice discrepancies, match exceptions, and placing purchase orders electronically.
In hospitals, healthcare supply chain management should evolve quickly to forecast and adjust the changing flow of patient volumes and care sites. Increased acute care in the home, utilization of telehealth, and remote patient monitoring will surely change demand for care facilities and supply demands from consumers. Efficiently catering to these requirements with the assistance of the latest technologies will determine the future of hospitals and healthcare supply chain management. In the healthcare supply chain management, technologies will play a vibrant role in boosting competence and reducing cost from now. Get yourself updated to avoid getting outdated!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the value of supply chain management in healthcare?
The healthcare supply chain management process ensures the right time availability of medicines, maximizing patient care, minimizing inventory wastage, and minimizing human errors. Healthcare supply chain management ensures timely availability of medicines for all patients at right time at lower cost possible.
What are the 5 basic components of supply chain management?
The five basic components of supply chain management are plan, source, manufacture, deliver, and return. Through these five components of supply chain management hospitals ensure the availability of all the medicines in hospitals. Shortage of essential medicines and other articles brings total chaos to the system.
Why is Supply Chain Management important for a hospital?
Supply chain management is essential for hospitals and other healthcare organizations as it ensures the availability of medicines and medical equipment so that patients get access to all facilities in time. In order to keep a consistent patient experience, an efficient supply chain management is necessary for all hospitals.
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Digital Healthcare
Article | November 29, 2023
Momentum in digital healthcare transformation… it’s massive, and much needed.
As organizations adapt to new modes of care, demands on resources, and consumer expectations, payors and providers are eyeing opportunities to reduce costs, improve care, build awareness, and expand relationships.Here are 8 trends we’re currently tracking into 2021:
TREND 1
The evolution of healthcare will be characterized by a reengineering of clinical care and operations around digital health and pervasive real-time use of data and advanced analytics. Gartner
TREND 2
The current landscape has underscored the importance of improving workflows, achieving greater clinical efficiencies and better integrating data across organizations through tools like natural language processing, remote process automation, and cloud-based technologies. Becker’s Hospital Review
TREND 3
Now more than ever, healthcare organizations must build a multi-channel digital experience portfolio to deliver personalized consumer-centric experiences that drive engagement and reduce costs. Becker’s Hospital Review
TREND 4
With increasing emphasis on cross-platform (EHR, CRM, CMS, virtual health, etc.) and cross-organizational data portability, advanced APIs and interoperability should ensure secure and efficient data exchanges between EHR systems, devices, and various channels of care. Forbes
TREND 5
COVID-19 has pushed telehealth into the mainstream, and adoption has gained impressive traction. Expect expansions of asynchronous virtual care leveraging integrated wearable technologies. Business Insider Intelligence / Research and Markets
TREND 6
With more healthcare data available, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will provide greater speed and insights to analyze and predict outcomes that drive change in patient care. Gartner / Forrester
TREND 7
Organizations will continue looking to Social Determinant of Health strategies to help understand health disparities – including those highlighted through COVID-19 infections – and alleviate some of the financial strains while delivering high quality care. Fierce Healthcare / Healthify
TREND 8
Successfully making the transition to offering greater price transparency will not only put healthcare organizations in compliance, but help satisfy patient demand, increasing patient engagement and even point-of-service payments. Health Leaders Media
The strategy imperative
With so much call for transformation, it’s vital to resist the pull of “shiny object” point solutions and to, instead, build a fully-considered digital strategy. Need help getting started? Our healthcare experts help the nation’s largest providers and payers navigate and execute their north star strategy, tackling specific challenges through assessments, best-practice advice, strategy, and roadmaps. Explore our thought leadership and connect with us to learn more today.
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Article | April 17, 2021
The healthcare industry is witnessing an unparalleled phase of expansion and vitality. It is a phase of radical revolution due to the wake of digital transformation. Digital transformation has opened up enormous unique opportunities that were unimaginable until a few years back.
These digital trends are bringing companies and individuals together. Data is the starting point of the digital revolution. These data are then transformed into relationships. Today, including healthcare companies, the success of every company is at stake. In other words, it is how you communicate with customers that matters.
This blog is all about healthcare digital communication, especially healthcare video marketing.
We’ll start by looking at data that demonstrates the power and effectiveness of the video marketing medium. There is nothing equal to the power and efficacy of video marketing in our world today. Then, we’ll look at the video marketing best strategies, healthcare video marketing best practices, and successful examples for healthcare video marketing.
There’s Nothing More Effective than Video Marketing
Here are some numbers that alone demonstrate why video is the most effective marketing medium in the digital age:
More than 5 billion videos are viewed on Youtube every day;
78% of online users watch at least one video every week. And 55% watch one every day;
According to estimates by Cisco, by 2022, 82% of all internet traffic will be generated by video. This percentage was already 72.3% in 2017;
When it comes to video, 55% of people pay more attention than any other type of content;
when viewing a video, the average user retains 95% of the message it contains; this percentage goes down to 10% when we talk about the text;
about 100 million hours of video watched every day on Facebook;
82% of registered Twitter users consume video content constantly;
on Instagram, posts containing video record 38% higher engagement on average than posts containing images;
54% of consumers say they want to see more videos from the brands they follow and support.
Such statistics are compelling for brands, and brands are taking notice. As a result, brands are moving to implement videos as much as possible in their marketing strategies, with excellent results. Two statistics below offer additional proof:
87% of marketing professionals use video in their strategy.
88% of marketers are satisfied with the ROI generated by video marketing campaigns.
This collection of data proves one thing: video is the most effective tool for healthcare digital marketing. And this also applies to the Healthcare sector. It’s even more accurate for this sector, which is intimately involved with consumers as part of their daily lives. Thus, healthcare video marketing is much effective and should be included in your healthcare marketing plan.
Strategies and Best Practices of Healthcare Video Marketing
So, let’s take a closer look at how we can build a video marketing strategy in the Healthcare sector, the fundamental points that must be included, the best practices, and some examples of success.
Start from education
It is often said that we live in the information age. Today, as never before, we have access to all the information we could need in just a few seconds, maybe with just a few taps on our smartphone during a coffee break. Health information is undoubtedly among the most sought-after online. In Italy alone, web searches made on this topic are 4 billion per year, a constantly growing trend.
The downside of all of this is the difficulty of finding your way around this mass of information, which is sometimes complex, misleading, or even untrue. That is why the first task of a company in the Healthcare sector is education. Education is not just a responsibility; and it’s also an opportunity.
In this sense, healthcare videos marketing prove to be the best ally. Healthcare video marketing is a way to provide the consumer with an effortless way to have access to transparent, precise, and authoritative information from your brand. That can be the first step toward establishing a relationship of trust with your brand.
Be clear, but also calm
In this case, let’s start immediately with an exciting and practical example. Targeted toward their younger patients, Miami Children’s Hospital created a healthcare video marketing campaign that explains what happens before, during, and after heart surgery. Understandably, this is a sensitive topic. With this effort of healthcare video marketing, the Miami Children’s Hospital manages to achieve the complex objective of providing clear and authoritative information while at the same time reassuring the viewer.
How?
They make the healthcare video marketing campaign compelling, authoritative, and reassuring by showing the faces of its staff members, demonstrating their professionalism, the environment, the healthcare technologies used, and everything related to the surgery. In this way, the high level of preparation and humanity of the people involved stand out to the viewer.
Learn to be engaging
As we saw above, you have to know how to correctly inform and educate your audience using influential healthcare video marketing trends, all with a calm demeanor. However, it’s also true that success also depends on your ability to excite and involve the viewer for healthcare video marketing in the sector. In short, the keyword is ‘storytelling.
An excellent example is the healthcare video marketing campaign carried out by the dental health department of Bupa UK and addressed to children (but applicable and reachable to adults as well). Through a great use of animations and storytelling, the brand uses the well-known story of the tooth fairy and associates it with childhood memories. This healthcare video marketing campaign has proven to be an excellent vehicle for establishing a truly intimate relationship with the viewer (and, not surprisingly, the video has exceeded 1.3 million views on YouTube).
Another effective way to be direct and engaging is to use influencers in your healthcare video marketing campaigns. An exciting example is the Australian pole vaulter, Amanda Bisk, diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. On her Instagram channel, Bisk talks about her path to fight the disease through fitness, and she has quickly become one of the most famous figures in Healthcare on the platform.
It’s important to note that today, more and more brands target top influencers and micro-influencers. Micro-influencers have a much smaller yet targeted and loyal following of fans. Therefore, their healthcare video marketing messages are perceived by the public as more authentic and personal.
Personalization
94% of marketers believe that personalization is crucial for the future of the business in which it moves. But what do we mean when we talk about personalization?
First of all, it’s not something new: knowing your audience has always been the best way to make a profit, calibrate your communication and your “tone of voice,” and increase engagement and loyalty. But what is the turning point of personalization today?
It is a digital turning point. Today, we all leave traces online at every moment: geolocation, Google searches, preferences on social networks, apps (which in Healthcare are increasingly widespread), and so on. We are talking about a vast amount of data that benefits both companies and consumers from a win-win perspective.
Therefore, it’s a matter of utilizing efficient systems to collect this data, dynamic systems designed with an omnichannel approach in mind. From the collection, the next step is to analyze and interpret this information. Then, you will want to divide your audience into many micro-targets with homogeneous and consistent characteristics to target with tailored communications and offers.
In conclusion, these facts are all the more true in a sector like healthcare that impacts people’s daily lives. The best healthcare video marketing strategy for brands can only be to get closer and closer to customers. That is precisely where specialized companies like us, Media7, come into play. Through compelling B2B healthcare video marketing efforts, we create opportunities for interaction and the possibility to insert custom calls to action.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is a video marketing strategy?
Video marketing strategy is creating, curating, and utilizing videos for marketing products and services of companies to the targeted audience. Marketing teams design the strategy. The idea behind the strategy is to keep the audience engaged with the brand.
Are videos effective for health tech marketing?
Videos are much effective for health tech marketing as people prefer to watch things than reading. Also, people are likely to trust what they see than reading. Videos are the highly impactful medium of marketing for any domain of business, including healthcare.
How to start with healthcare video marketing?
The first step to healthcare video marketing is to define your video marketing strategy. Fix and analyze the target audience to understand the online behavior trends to get an idea about their video engagements and clicks on various social media channels.
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