The Benefits of a Data-Driven Approach to the Patient Experience

Healthcare enterprises—from payers to providers to medical device manufacturers—are increasingly using first-, second-, and third-party data to personalize engagements with consumers. This data is extremely valuable in individualizing communication with patients as well as effectively targeting prospective consumers.
 
Recent data found that almost half (47 percent) of consumers feel they are not receiving a holistic healthcare experience. While organizations are at varying stages of collecting and using data to drive improved performance, all healthcare enterprises must be working toward this goal to satisfy today’s empowered consumer.
 
The Data Challenge
Beyond medical data, there is a variety of behavioral, demographic, and interaction data never used in holistically communicating with consumers, due to several challenges:
 
Data siloes: First and foremost, many businesses don’t have access to all the data they need to personalize the experience. They might have a patient’s medical history, for example, but are unaware of basic facts such as where they live or their occupation.
 
Data siloes, caused by a lack of data sharing across the healthcare spectrum, are largely to blame for this lack of access. Another factor? Incomplete data input, which is a result of not asking the right questions or not unifying all relevant data together. Without knowing all that is knowable about each individual, it’s difficult for healthcare organizations (or any organization) to make informed engagement decisions.
 
Integration: Even with access to the right data, it won’t be effective if it’s not integrated into a single view of the customer. Matching records by patient ID within one system is relatively straight forward, but integrating third-party data, device data, mobile, and web behavior data requires advanced matching capabilities. This data also needs to be carefully maintained, as healthcare journeys are long and complex, and the impacts need to be measured over time.
 
Real-time access: Healthcare enterprises must have access to historical and current consumer data in real-time. A monthly batch of data does little good when health conditions can change by the minute.
 
Real-time data access gives healthcare organizations the ability to take a next-best action or make a recommendation for treatment in the right context and cadence of an individual’s healthcare journey. Implementing machine learning algorithms can also be beneficial to ensure an individual’s profile is continuously updated, allowing healthcare companies to measure where a person stands at any moment in time.
 
Why Personalization Matters
Consumer expectations are increasing—due to seeing the possibilities in retail, CPG, and travel industries—to the point of consumers now demanding hyper personalized and omnichannel experiences in healthcare. The always-connected customer interacts with brands across multiple different channels, and there are high expectations for brands to know each unique individual throughout those dynamic journeys.
 
Healthcare is increasingly trending in this direction, driven largely by the modern consumer whose healthcare touchpoints are no longer limited to point-of-care interactions. Connected health trackers such as the Fitbit, Apple Watch, and other IoT-connected medical devices give consumers the power to monitor and measure their own personal health statistics in real-time. These data-driven, digital experiences not only put the individual in charge of their own healthcare journey but also provide businesses with a wealth of knowledge that can be used to further personalize the experience.
 
Beyond Managing Records
A positive healthcare experience stems from organizations using data to take the friction out of the journey while also being proactive in treating the consumer holistically.
 
Healthcare data management should extend far beyond maintaining medical records; today’s knowledgeable and empowered consumer expects organizations they interact with to know them on a deeper, individual level. By overcoming data management obstacles such as access, use, and speed, healthcare enterprises of all kinds can provide each patient with valuable, personalized experiences that improve outcomes and lower costs.

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John Nash has spent his career helping businesses grow revenue through the application of advanced technologies, analytics, and business model innovations. As chief marketing and strategy officer at Redpoint Global, he is responsible for developing new markets, launching new solutions, building brand awareness, generating pipeline growth, and advancing thought leadership.