Share this article
The top consumer healthcare trends from our webinar with Forrester
In January 2023, we were joined by Forrester to explore the most pressing consumer healthcare trends, and the role that insights management plays in helping healthcare and pharmaceutical enterprises stay ahead of the competition.
Forrester’s VP Principal Analyst and healthcare analyst Natalie Schibell, MPH, took a year’s worth of research and distilled it into consumer healthcare trends and 10 bold calls to tackle success in the future of healthcare. We summarize five consumer healthcare trends from Natalie’s presentation here, but be sure to watch the entire webinar for more critical consumer healthcare trends you need to know.
What consumer healthcare trends will shape 2023 and beyond?
Platforms of the future will need to optimize industry workflows to solve the toughest challenges. The highest priority program initiatives should be pursued over the next two to five years.
Natalie Schibell, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Natalie kicked off the webinar by outlining some of the greatest challenges facing healthcare today. The US is seeing sweeping healthcare workforce shortages and there’s a mental health crisis, an aging population (“the silver tsunami”), large income-based health disparities, and a lack of transparency. At the same time, healthcare spending has reached a critical tipping point, with $4.3 trillion annual healthcare spend in the US. This challenging landscape is the backdrop to consumer healthcare trends shaping the future of the industry.
- Wavering consumer trust. From pervasive healthcare misinformation to unequal, biased data and healthcare data breaches, Natalie said that consumer trust in healthcare and pharmaceuticals needs a reboot. “Healthcare will exit the trusted category as misinformation and cyber attacks persist,” she said. Natalie detailed the ways in which consumer trust in healthcare organizations is eroding, and asserted that “the healthcare industry must make significant changes to enable a digital-first future that is equitable, privacy led, and financially viable.”
- The rise of consumer-led data sharing. Natalie discussed how consumer-led data sharing will push organizations to evolve and help the healthcare industry begin to address, rather than perpetuate, unequal outcomes. Inclusive data will help overcome barriers, ensuring data is representative of the people therapies and treatments intend to help. Healthcare organizations need to focus on inclusive design, and think about how they can “position themselves to show patients and members that they’re truly motivated to help enable their long-term health and wellness, and then set them up for success,” Natalie said.
- Artificial intelligence will revolutionize the healthcare and pharma industry. In the coming years, the healthcare and pharma industry will leverage AI to optimize data flow with ease. And as healthcare data analytics become more reliant on data generated by patients and members, AI tools will propel precision medicine—AI will “monitor, transform, and analyze data to predict disease and and develop personalized treatments, potentially improving health outcomes and the cost of care,” Natalie said. Likewise, Natalie shared that we’ll see AI being leveraged to mitigate physician burnout and provider shortages by lessening administrative burden and augmenting diagnostic capabilities in rural locations where provider shortages are more common.
- Remote decentralized clinical trials (RDCTs) will dominate trial operations. The pandemic catapulted clinical studies into the remote/virtual realm, and that trend doesn’t seem to be stopping. Between 2019 and 2021, RTDC commencements more than tripled, Natalie said. “The pressure to speed up time-to-market and clinical study diversity will leave the industry with no option but to embrace trial decentralization,” she asserted. The industry will rely on innovative new technologies for remote monitoring, telemedicine, and engagement, and lessen financial and time burdens on patients and researchers, Natalie said.
- Value-based care will become the primary reimbursement method. As consumers demand more value and transparency about healthcare costs and the value they’re getting from their healthcare systems, value-based care will be “essential to moving the needle on trust in healthcare,” Natalie said. Home-based care services and labor force transformation will be key to “enabling healthcare organizations to embrace value-based care and take on more downside risk,” she added.
Success in the face of future consumer healthcare trends
Natalie ended her talk with a brief roadmap for platformization in the healthcare and life sciences sector. Platforms of the future will be key to optimizing industry workflows, so companies can succeed in the face of consumer healthcare trends like the ones outlined here.
Market Logic’s Nanad Savic, Senior Product Owner, shared an example of an innovative insights-engagement platform designed to streamline market research compliance, collaboration, and reporting workflows typical for research and insights professionals in the pharma and healthcare industry.
In the panel discussion that followed, Market Logic’s Stefan Ropers, CEO, joined, and the speakers discussed pressing topics in consumer healthcare market research, including:
- What is the role of insights teams and consumer insights in responding to a rapidly changing industry?
- What should healthcare enterprises focus on to help avoid disruption and protect themselves from the volatile markets ahead?
- What is the biggest challenge facing market research teams in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industries?
Click here to learn more about how Market Logic is transforming the world of healthcare and pharmaceuticals. You can watch the webinar on demand.