Health Technology, AI
Article | July 18, 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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Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | September 8, 2023
Healthcare marketing, for a healthcare provider, is challenging as a lot of technologies are emerging in the market. What matters is choosing the right healthcare marketing techniques and technology to market your products and services. The global digital health market size was USD 51.3 billion in 2015. According to Global Market Insights, this is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.9% from 2016 to 2025. However, to compete with your opponents and to face the challenges of increasing patients buying your products and services, you need an excellent and well-designed marketing strategy with the latest healthcare marketing trends.
As we have entered a new decade, healthcare providers should look into developments in the healthcare marketing brought out by the year 2020. The global pandemic has changed all the practices in the industry, including the style of healthcare marketing and technology. Since the turn of the century, online marketing has been a part and parcel of healthcare marketing. However, healthcare marketing is witnessing a new era. This can be attributed to the increasing integration of various smart devices in the everyday lives of people and the introduction of artificial intelligence algorithms. Are you ready to leverage these technological transformations and changes?
This article discusses some of the major healthcare marketing trends to be integrated into your healthcare marketing strategies.
Reviews Matter
One of the important healthcare marketing trends that you can use is online reviews from happy patients. Healthcare providers have largely relied upon these online reviews— the patient sentiment—to establish a reputation and acquire new patients. These reviews are widespread across multiple online platforms and anyone can easily access them.
A study conducted by Binary Fountain in 2019 claimed that 60% of people use online reviews to choose a healthcare provider. It also claimed that 75% are influenced by online feedback when they go for a healthcare provider. This shows how influential this healthcare marketing trend is. Thus, in 2021, healthcare providers should concentrate on acquiring positive reviews and replying to both good and bad reviews and feedback. It is crucial to respond to negative reviews for your online reputation management, as 70% of patients consider it important to address patient concerns publicly.
Content is King
Content marketing is yet another healthcare marketing trend that healthcare providers should focus on. Producing educational, entertaining, engaging, and high-quality content is crucial in increasing your online brand visibility and patient engagement. This aspect of online marketing came into existence ever since Google became the king in the search engine market and established their ever-evolving algorithms.
To leverage this healthcare marketing trend, healthcare providers should have a plan for creating content holistically and publishing it on multiple platforms in different forms. All content that goes online should be well-produced and authoritative. All forms of text-based content, such as articles, blogs, press releases, white papers, and case studies, should be well-written and have high-quality links. It is also good to add images to your content to increase engagement.
Within this healthcare marketing trend, video marketing is considered to be the most effective one because online visual content appeals to users more than any other form of content. To make the most out of your videos, you can run video ads on YouTube, share them on your social media pages, and post them on websites and landing pages.
Responsive, Fast Loading Websites
Among the online healthcare marketing techniques, it is very important to have a very responsive and fast loading website. Also, the navigation on the site should be smooth and easy. This is because the websites with these features win more patients.
Websites of healthcare providers with ads and pop-ups, navigation issues, and slow loading will make users leave the site in no time. This will be much realized in 2021 as patients expect websites to load instantly on all their devices, including their smartphones.
To increase patient acquisition, you may have to streamline and optimize your website for both mobile and desktop viewing. Here are some quick tips to make your website loading fast and navigation easy:
• Decrease image size on your website
• Switch to a faster web host
• Clean up unnecessary code.
Growing Influence of Social Media
Having a strong presence on all social media platforms is an effective digital healthcare marketing tactic. The online presence of your healthcare organization should not be limited to your website. To maximize your brand’s reach and to have an impact in 2021, you may have to make full use of all social media platforms. In terms of lead generation, engagement, marketing, and reputation management, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others, are turning more influential nowadays. According to Statista, social media has 2.82 billion active users. More specifically, according to Hootsuite, as of 2020, 90% of older adults use social media to seek or share healthcare information.
This most influential healthcare digital marketing trend can be effectively used by creating and promoting targeted ads on all these platforms. Also, by interacting with users through likes, comments, and shares and publishing content regularly, you can increase your organic reach. For any healthcare provider and marketer of 2021 and beyond, it is a massive mistake to neglect the power of social media.
Data-Driven Healthcare Marketing
In 2021, to personalize outreach campaigns, healthcare providers and marketers will have data and tools. Adhering to HIPAA regulations, healthcare providers can design various marketing materials according to key demographics, such as key health concerns, income levels, age range, etc. This is the more granular approach to reach new patients and to keep your regular and current patients loyal to your brand. This personalized healthcare marketing technique will make patients feel that they are treated well and slowly build up trust in your brand.
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool, which is reliable and healthcare-specific, can store relevant patient data. To optimize your marketing strategy, insights from the stored data can be considered. Thus, this important healthcare marketing technique—data-driven healthcare marketing—helps you personalize your healthcare marketing campaigns.
Turning to Telemedicine Technology
Demanding physical processes and spatial barriers are not yet a big restriction for healthcare providers. Artificial intelligence, telemedicine, automated systems, and IOT contribute a lot to make healthcare more efficient and accessible. Highlighting these features in healthcare also becomes an effective healthcare marketing technique.
Using telemedicine software, healthcare can be provided remotely, which eliminates the need for an in-house visit. Although this breakthrough happened at the start of the century, it will become more accessible, viable, reliable, and will be used widely than ever before in 2021. Patients with mobility and transportation issues prefer using remote healthcare services and adding these facilities to your services can be considered a part of healthcare marketing tactics. So start offering remote healthcare services, if you have not started yet. This will eventually increase your brand reputation and build up trust.
Self-Serving Technologies- Patient Profiles, Chatbots, and Appointment-Scheduling Modules
As part of healthcare marketing plan and strategy, patient profiles, chatbots, and appointment-scheduling modules are incorporated by providers in their websites. These additions provide more awareness and control of their health to the patients. Updating your website to include these self-serving technology will help you improve the patient experience online.
Look forward to the new developments in healthcare marketing technology to improve your healthcare marketing, which is suitable for you. Embracing all of these changes and transformation in healthcare marketing strategy will help you stay ahead of your competitors with effective healthcare marketing campaigns strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are technological advances in healthcare?
The year 2020 witnessed a lot of technological advancements in the healthcare industry due to the pandemic. Some of the major ones among them are personalized medicine, telemedicine, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
What technology is used in healthcare marketing?
Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, voice search, and augmented reality are some of the major technologies used in treatment and marketing in healthcare in 2021. However, the technology in healthcare marketing is ever-evolving as new trends are set every moment.
Why is technology important in marketing?
Technology is very important in businesses and marketing as technology helps businesses grow. It also creates relationships and it is necessary for communication between the customer and the organizations. Technology is an essential part of any business for development and growth.
What is the most effective healthcare marketing technology?
There are many existing and emerging healthcare marketing technologies in the global market. However, the most effective marketing technique is social media; generating leads through social media and websites.
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Digital Healthcare
Article | November 29, 2023
The healthcare industry has become a prime target for cybercriminals in recent times.
According to The State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2023 report from Sophos, six in 10 healthcare organizations have been hit by ransomware in the last 12 months, up from 34% in 2021.
Among this uptick have been several headline-grabbing attacks. For example, Shields Health Care Group became the subject of the single-largest breach affecting any organization globally in April 2023, when 2.3 million patients of the Massachusetts-based medical services provider had their personal data stolen after a cybercriminal gained unauthorized access to the organization’s systems.
Meanwhile, in the UK, a ransomware attack on the University of Manchester occurred in June, affecting an NHS patient data set holding information on 1.1 million patients across 200 hospitals.
Critically, the wealth of data housed in healthcare networks, and the potential impact of data unavailability in healthcare, make the industry both attractive and lucrative to threat actors.
It’s no coincidence that the Sophos report shows the rate of encryption in the healthcare sector is at its highest level in recent years. Of those healthcare organizations which suffered a ransomware attack in 2023, 73% had their data encrypted – up from 61% in 2022. When cybercriminals can successfully take down hospital systems and/or encrypt patient data so it can’t be used, they can blackmail health service providers, demanding significant sums before reinstating systems and/or data availability.
Considering healthcare's critical role as the highest-stake industry in our society, where people's lives depend on its success, the likelihood of attackers achieving their goals is greater than in other sectors, as confirmed by the Sophos report. Indeed, of the 73% of healthcare organizations that had their data encrypted, 42% reported that they paid the requested ransom to recover data.
DSPT and the compliance burden
Without question, the security-related challenges in healthcare are mounting. Right now, industry organizations are operating against a backdrop of unprecedented operational and workforce pressures, spiralling demand for care and industrial action.
Moreover, there is a growing regulatory burden, with organizations continually asked to comply with evolving cybersecurity rules, battling with multiple compliance mandates at any given time.
Take the NHS as an example. According to the 2023 NHS Providers’ Regulation Survey, just over half (52%) of respondents said the regulatory burden on their trust had increased. And this is expected to ramp up further in the future, with the UK government setting out a new 2030 strategy aimed at bolstering cyber resilience in healthcare.
Among the compliance burdens that the NHS faces is the challenge of meeting the requirements of the newly updated Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT).
Mandated to minimize cyber risks and enable healthcare providers to maintain a robust information security posture, the DSPT is not a simple checklist of security controls, but a comprehensive toolkit to evaluate current security maturity and establish a risk management programme.
Indeed, in more recent times, DSPT has moved away from being a guide for achieving certain levels of assurance, and toward a mandatory evidence-based system which demands NHS organizations align with 10 precise National Data Guardian (NDG) standards: 1. The organization assures good management and maintenance of identity and access control for its networks and information systems. 2. The organization closely manages privileged user access to networks and information systems supporting essential services. 3. The organization ensures passwords are suitable for the information being protected. 4. Process reviews are held at least once a year where data security is put at risk and following security incidents. 5. Action is taken to address problems as a result of feedback at meetings. 6. All user devices are subject to anti-virus protections, while email services benefit from spam filtering and protection deployed at the corporate gateway. 7. Action is taken on known vulnerabilities based on advice from NHS Digital, and lessons are learned from previous incidents and near misses. 8. The organization has a defined, planned and communicated response to data security incidents impacting sensitive information or key operational services. 9. The organization has demonstrable confidence in the effectiveness of the security of technology, people, and processes relevant to essential services. 10. The organization securely configures the network and information systems that support the delivery of essential services.
Reducing Compliance Challenges with the Right Solutions
Taken individually, these standards may not seem too strenuous to adhere to. However, to be compliant with DSPT, all 10 items need to be completed and deemed ‘satisfactory’.
To tick all 10 key boxes in the most effective and efficient manner simultaneously, organizations should consider their strategy carefully. This could involve embracing supportive tools to accelerate and enhance their compliance journey.
Boiled down, DSPT demands several key things, including unincumbered visibility of the entire ecosystem, as well as the ability to demonstrate secure access, logs and storage, and essential auditing processes to maintain data security.
Achieving these things might appear complicated, even daunting. However, there are solutions known as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems on the market that can make achieving these capabilities, and in turn DSPT compliance, easy.
Here, we outline some of the key features to look out for to meet compliance: • Log retention: A modern SIEM should be able to provide a centralized log storage and big data platform that scales to any organization’s size. Platforms should be able to provide role-based access to log data, including ‘data privacy’ functionality that can mask sensitive data until approved. Log data should not be modified or removed by users once ingested into the platform, while all data held should also be indexed and fully searchable. • Identifying and disabling unnecessary accounts: A good SIEM will also provide account auditing facilities for Active Directory that allow administrators to quickly identify dormant accounts. They should also be able to remove privileged user access when no longer required or appropriate. More sophisticated platforms will be able to do this in an automated manner. • Easy identification of issues: Clear and easily readable dashboards, alerts and reports for user logging activity should be provided, including failed login, apparent brute-force attempts, and bad password management practices. Further, those using machine learning will be able to identify unusual behavior patterns based on a baseline of activities of users and their peer group. • Integrate with third-party threat feeds: It will also be able to integrate with a wide variety of third-party threat feeds that provide information about specific known threat payloads/hashes and destination domains/addresses.
Meeting the mandate
Of course, having the right features in place is only part of the puzzle. For organizations to be truly successful in embracing tools that enable them to meet DSPT compliance more effectively, they should work to ensure that solutions providers offer them ongoing support – both in terms of ease of deployment and to ensure that they are using key systems in an optimal manner.
Scalability is another important aspect to consider.
Systems should be able to scale and continue to support the organization as data volumes increase and become more complex over time.
In respect of scalability, organizations should take time to think about pricing models, ensuring that these are based on the number of devices (nodes). In doing so, it will become easier to accurately budget future costs, as well as provide greater budgeting certainty over the short, medium and longer term.
A converged SIEM allows organizations to prioritize the big picture over individual tools, enabling them to develop a seamless and easy to use security operations setup. Not only does this approach boost cost transparency and eliminate potential complexities with managing a variety of siloed products – equally, it reduces the burdens on security teams, eliminating complexities over system integration and enhancing performance.
A converged SIEM combines key technologies easily to offer improved security outcomes. In doing so, organizations can easily home in on specific standards and adopt security best practices while reducing the burden on security teams tasked with meeting DSPT compliance.
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Health Technology
Article | July 3, 2023
The medical field has undergone a significant amount of change during the past few years, and it’s clear that healthcare consumers are seeking digital experiences. Meeting this need by providing virtual care options can not only remove barriers to quality healthcare but also reduce stress on the healthcare system.
At the same time, how can medical providers offer digital care options, and how can doing so drive revenue growth?
Allow online scheduling to increase appointment volume
If you have ever spent hours on hold, you know how frustrating it can be. In the same way, if patients are left on hold for too long, they will most likely disconnect before a member of the team can assist them. This is why it’s crucial to allow patients to schedule their care online. Patients expect to attend medical appointments at a time that is convenient for them, which means they want to schedule those appointments at a time that is convenient for them as well. They do not want to spend time waiting on hold, only for someone on the other end of the phone to offer them appointments that do not work for them.
The solution would be for medical providers to invest in a digital phone solution that can maintain a virtual waiting room. These virtual waiting rooms allow patients to maintain their place in line, such as receiving a callback, making it easier for them to schedule appointments. Of course, an online booking option can be helpful as well. Most patients want to schedule their appointments when they are not at work, and an online booking option allows them to do so regardless of their business hours.
Don’t forget to consider the type of booking software you use as well. If you select booking software that will automatically sync with your scheduling system in the office, you can take a significant amount of stress off your front office staff.
Digital communication options are crucial
Tebra’s recent Patient Perspectives report indicates that the majority of patients (55%) want to be able to reach their medical providers quickly to get answers to their questions, even when they do not have an appointment scheduled. If you have two-way messaging software, you can streamline the flow between your patients and providers, which may reduce the number of appointments your patients need to book.
For example, patients can ask for prescription refills, run specific numbers by their medical providers, and get quick answers to questions about symptoms they might be experiencing. Not only does this support patients and nurture their loyalty, but it also alleviates unnecessary appointments from inundating providers’ schedules.
Take advantage of telehealth for additional revenue
Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, very few patients took advantage of telehealth. Now, nearly a quarter (about 25%) of all patients indicate that they have used telehealth during the past year, and many patients prefer this option.
The reality is that telehealth can remove barriers that would otherwise make it hard for patients to access care. They don't have to worry about taking time off work, arranging for child care, or driving a long distance to meet with a doctor.
While telehealth will never fully replace in-person visits, it can be an excellent option for cold and flu symptoms, mental health issues, and routine check-ins. By offering telehealth to your patients, you can make it much easier for them to access the care they need.
Modernize your revenue channels by taking advantage of digital healthcare
It’s obvious that the medical world is changing quickly, and digital aspects of care are here to stay. To ensure your practice can adequately meet your patients’ needs, take full advantage of everything in this article and ensure you have reliable digital care options. You can develop multiple revenue streams for your medical practice or system while maintaining high patient satisfaction rates and without adding to your workload.
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