While the pandemic has hit care delivery organizations hard, it has also accelerated transformation across health and life sciences at an unprecedented scale and pace. Right now, I’m seeing organizations hit the gas pedal in a few key areas:
There’s Been a Major Acceleration In Care Delivery Transformation and the Shift to Consumerism
Providing care where and when the consumer wants it. Telehealth is here to stay. Digital front doors are opening. If you think about how much the industry has evolved in the last year alone, imagine where it will be eight years from now. By the end of the decade, we can expect that about 75 percent of care can be delivered through alternative or non-traditional methods – home, retail locations, virtual – thanks to advances in medical technology, remote patient monitoring, and digital tools that haven’t even been developed yet.
We’re Also Seeing Rapid Advances In Life Sciences
With an acute focus on advancing treatments for major disease states and faster speed-to-market by enabling repeatable commercialization and globalization best practices. The ability to thrive in this new world will take clinical trial innovation, reimagining the supply chain, and harnessing the power of data.
On the Payer Side, Health Plans Are Focusing on Their Competitive Position
In this transforming environment. How to retain membership and grow while trimming costs? The answer is in modernizing through the use of AI and automation and creating a connected consumer experience powered by data interoperability and digital tools—all while focusing on long-term diversification strategies.
Now, consider all the new entrants and partnerships that are popping up, such as the play Amazon Care is making and partnerships such as Truveta. We’ll continue to see disruptors move the industry beyond traditional healthcare to a focus on health that puts consumer convenience, personalization and ease of engagement at the center.
When I think about the transformation that’s going on, it really boils down to two major, interrelated trends: creating a connected, personalized consumer experience and leveraging technology to drive efficiency and innovation. These trends are at the heart of where the industry is headed. And both of them depend on the ability to adapt. Gone are the days when you have a static annual strategic plan that you operate against. It’s critical to have an adaptive, agile approach—one that allows your organization to quickly adjust as economic, political and business landscapes evolve.
While many organizations are tackling components of consumer experience and data interoperability, we see the greatest success when we work with our customers to approach their consumer experience and data strategy holistically, across the entire consumer value chain—from the brand and marketing experience to the care experience, to how the consumer accesses support. Ultimately, patients and consumers will be the judges of whether an organization is walking the talk of consumer-centered care.
It’s also worth noting that the employee experience is just as critical. After all, your people are your brand promise. They’re the experience your consumers and patients encounter every day. These days, I like to ask our customers, “Are you keeping up and caring for your people?” Not only are many employees feeling fatigue and burnout after the last 16 months, but their expectations are changing, too. Flexibility, culture and connectedness are taking on new meaning in the work environment. Finding new ways to stay close to your employees is paramount now. I believe it will become even more important going forward, as most of us will never be going back to a workplace where everyone’s on-site 100 percent of the time.
Like many of you, we're reimagining how we can best serve our customers in this transformative time. We pride ourselves on creating new collaborations across the health ecosystem to solve some of the industry’s most complex challenges. For example, we recently launched a national clinical trial innovation forum that brings together cross-disciplinary leaders from providers and life sciences organizations to solve complex industry problems together. We plan to create more meaningful connections across the industry in the coming months.
Coming soon, you can also expect us to share fresh perspectives on clinical trial innovation, cell and gene therapy commercialization, supply chain optimization, business model transformation, and marketing for growth and retention. We’re honored to help leading organizations across the industry realize their missions at a time of deep and wide change. Your dedication inspires us every day.