Future Healthcare: Future Healthcare Patients

Archetype 1: The Achiever

Achievers are the youngest group of future patients, with a median age of 36. They make up 31% of the total survey population . Of the three archetypes, Achievers are the most satisfied with the healthcare system. They regularly access information about health topics online by visiting various websites. In addition, they engage in physical exercise several times a week, so their health is generally good or even very good.

When it comes to medical innovations, Achievers are well-informed: three-quarters of them have high-quality information about innovations. As many as 88% are willing to have a video appointment with a doctor. 41% will regularly visit online medical systems and are prepared to pay part of the cost out of pocket, while 27% say they would regularly use these systems if they were free. In general, this group is happy to use online medical services provided by big tech companies.

Archetype 2: Follower

Followers are the middle group of the three, with a median age of 45. They make up just under half of the total respondents. Interestingly, they are the least satisfied with the healthcare system: they are less satisfied with it than the Aspirers and even the Hesitants. Like the Aspirers, they mainly use websites for health information, but only occasionally. In addition, they exercise several times a week and are generally in good health.

Followers are less aware of healthcare innovations than Adversaries: only 41% have a high level of information. Three-quarters are willing to have a video appointment with a doctor, and more than a third say they would regularly use online healthcare systems even if they have to pay a co-pay. When it comes to online healthcare services provided by big tech companies, Followers say they would occasionally use these services if it made the process more convenient.

Archetype 3: The Hesitant

We call the final group of patients the Hesitants. With a median age of 54 , this age group is the oldest and accounts for just over one-fifth of the respondents. The Hesitants show a moderate level of satisfaction with the healthcare system. Unlike the other two archetypes, they primarily seek health information from their doctors rather than the internet. They only exercise occasionally, so their health status can be described as somewhere between good and neutral.

Not surprisingly, this group of patients has the worst knowledge about healthcare innovations, with less than a third fully informed on the subject. However, they are not agnostic when it comes to innovation: 65% say they would be happy to have a video appointment with their doctor, although actual uptake of this service may be somewhat lower. The main difference between Hesitants and the other two archetypes is their attitude towards sharing data with online health vendors: 41% of Hesitants flatly refuse to use such systems, as they would never give their personal health data to a tech company. They also have the same attitude towards online healthcare services offered by big tech companies, refusing to use them.

Opportunities and Challenges

The increasingly personalized needs of consumers have undoubtedly made the solutions of suppliers more complicated. But at the same time, new opportunities have been created. Individualized customers require more detailed information, which enables service providers to formulate personalized strategies. In specific segmentation and highly personalized digital methods, the cost of supporting patients will be reduced and the success rate of treatment will be improved. If handled properly, this will lead to better results and overall efficiency improvement.

For all players, how they build their information modules is critical. This survey shows that future medical patients will only trust private medical institutions that can clearly communicate health information because this is beneficial to patients. However, if they cannot clearly understand the possible results, they are likely to not trust the parties involved. For example, their trust in digital providers is likely to depend on the provider's transparency about where data is stored. Overall, patients trust medical service providers the most; all other players need to build stronger, trust-based relationships with future medical patients to ensure success.

The increasing personalization of consumers undoubtedly brings more complex challenges to providers, but at the same time it also creates new opportunities.

01. Health Insurance Company

For health insurance companies, digitalization is a good marketing theme for young, healthy, and well-educated target groups. However, such players need to tailor and communicate different messages to older, less healthy or less educated patients at the same time, convincing this group that medical and technological innovations mean more time and energy savings. Partnerships with healthcare providers can serve them well, as healthcare providers enjoy a high level of trust among relevant target groups.

Trust in health insurers varies from country to country, so the messaging must also be country-specific. In countries with high trust, payers can continue on the path from “ payer to participant ,” that is, patients themselves can become providers. On the other hand, in countries where trust in insurers is low, they need to work hard to find the right partners to build consumer trust.

In summary, in all cases, insurers must convince consumers of the benefits of their digital products. They should also provide different products for patients who want to steer their own health path in an autonomous manner and those who are more comfortable being guided through the system. Different approaches are also needed for each of the three consumer archetypes (Goers, Followers, and Hesitants).

02. Healthcare providers

Healthcare providers (hospitals, doctors, clinics, nursing homes, etc.) need to have a deep understanding of their target groups before they start thinking about strategic measures. We recommend that they put the “ future healthcare patient ” at the center of their strategic positioning and the development of their digital strategy.

As competition between traditional healthcare providers and big tech providers intensifies, providers need to understand their unique selling proposition ( USP ). Based on this, they may start to develop partnerships with technology companies to provide related services, thereby extending their value chain.

In terms of sales and marketing, providers need to rethink their strategies and develop sales and marketing approaches that are centered around the needs of patients. They can use different marketing channels and service channels to attract patient groups with different levels of openness to digital innovation.

To achieve a continuous, departmentally integrated, seamless patient journey, departmental boundaries need to be reduced. Traditional healthcare providers can achieve this by partnering with outpatient services and adding services to the secondary care market (lifestyle, wellness, prevention), thereby increasing the diversity of services to meet the needs of different patient groups.

The survey confirms that healthcare providers remain extremely important in the digital age. Patients prefer face-to-face interactions with their doctors and place the greatest trust in such actors. Therefore, healthcare providers will play an important role in the rollout of innovations and in convincing patients to use them.

03. Pharmaceutical companies

Pharma companies need to rely less on integrators and platforms. The opportunity for such players is to innovate using their own power and create compelling data evidence that makes it impossible for anyone to ignore their products. They can do this by demonstrating the benefits of these products for each specific patient population. This requires first selecting the right participants for clinical trials, then tracking actual data, ideally in real time, and further personalizing their strategies based on this. Such players will need to take a robust approach - especially important in a time of widespread perception that the drug market is overpriced, and the constant need to crack down on new companies offering cheap generic drugs, like health insurers, pharma companies can also benefit from promoting collaboration with traditional healthcare providers (as the most trusted stakeholders in the system) and actively shaping the new patient-centric ecosystem emerging in the digital health space.

04. Medical technology companies

The role of medtech companies in serving the “ medical patient of the future ” will be as critical as it is diverse. These players will make important contributions to diagnosis and treatment while capturing information to enable a fully data-driven healthcare system. Of all the players in the healthcare space, they face the greatest pressure to digitize their portfolios. If they can do this effectively, they will not only be able to generate health data 24/7, but also perform traditional diagnostic procedures (e.g., diagnostic radiology, in vitro and in vivo diagnostics), robotic surgery, and other treatments. While in many cases, a large portion of such players’ products will currently rely on medical professionals’ buy-in, there are opportunities to “ integrate forward ” and deliver critical services directly to patients.

05. Government

Governments will want to harness the potential benefits of digital health to improve health outcomes. This will make healthcare systems more efficient and help address the challenges of an aging population by supporting a shrinking workforce.

Governments can create a framework that enables market players to introduce innovation and build patient-centric networks for better care. At the same time, they should be aware that platforms have an inherent tendency to form monopolies, so part of their role is to ensure the existence of healthy market competition.

It is important that policymakers establish a regulatory framework that allows for the creation of standardized smart data sets within their control. External parties should then be allowed to use these data sets to develop applications based on artificial intelligence ( AI ) and other digital solutions that patients can use to get better healthcare. A major task for governments is to get healthcare providers and patients to accept such data collection activities. Achieving this goal requires effective communication, personalized for different target groups, to reap the potential benefits.

Importantly, the regulatory framework should allow for the creation of standardized smart datasets that can be used by all parties to develop AI-based applications.

Conclusion

All players in the healthcare field need to make significant efforts for the future of healthcare to change patients' skepticism about innovation. Importantly, players must differentiate their strategies and approaches for different patients in the future. In this way, although the challenges are more complex, personalized strategies will also usher in new opportunities.

From: Roland Berger