Throughout 2024, I have observed a consistent shift towards patient-centric commerical pharma conversations. It strengthened as a top trend year-over-year in our annual pharma survey, and observation of industry events and content this year validates that data. It’s an exciting evolution! We have had great discussions with leaders within pharma companies who are asking smart questions about how to have the concept of patient-centricity meaningfully carried out and reflected in key business objectives.
I sought out the input of three subject matter experts with diverse perspectives to help answer five questions around this increasing focus on the patient as the costumer. What follows is excerpts from my interviews with Dr. Jenny Yu, Berkeley Bethune, and Sarah Clark. I learned even more about what it will look like for pharma to come along with the patient and also had some of my assumptions challenged. I look forward to our collective work as an industry in striving for a truly empowered patient and better health outcomes.
Let’s start with how you feel about the premise. Is 2024 “the year of the patient”? In a fireside chat I hosted recently with Google, Klick Health, and a leading advisor to health start ups, we posited that the new reality is that we are no longer discussing “empowering patients”. Pharma needs to calibrate around the reality that today’s patient is empowered. What are you seeing that validates (or challenges) this theory?
“Today’s patients are certainly more empowered than previously. Trusted health information, digital care solutions, and other tech tools are readily available to empower the patients in their own health and wellness, in their doctor conversations, and in making choices. I would challenge that we have not arrived at the point of empowered. With more choices, there needs to be more connectivity and collaboration across the industry that simplifies the decision-making for a patient. For example, as a person living with diabetes, how do I integrate the information from my doctor, nutritionist, and wearable technology to make it personalized and actionable for me. To a degree, the patients are empowered with information, tools and data, but what level of discernment and personalization is needed to change the health outcome of the said patient.”
– Dr. Jenny Yu, Chief Medical Officer, Healthline Media
Consumer expectations around experience with a brand or company are high. What would you tell marketers are table stakes when it comes to patient expectations for pharmaceutical/healthcare experiences?
“As consumers are more empowered to take control of their health journey, they are increasingly turning to sources across the digital landscape for information and resources. Unfortunately, medical mis-information is rife – and often trending – which can have long-term negative health impacts. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for marketers.
We as marketers must earn our consumer’s trust – not just once – but with every interaction. This is true across the information and resources we provide but also must be true for our intent – which should always put the consumer first. We must ask ourselves, how might we best support our consumers at this moment and anticipate their future needs. Meaningfully showing up for consumers will not only support them on a path to better health outcomes, but also continuously earn their trust which is the paramount for brand success.”
– Berkeley Bethune, Senior Director, Relationship Marketing, Healthline Media
Earlier this year, Healthline Media broke down four key areas of consumer needs that can drive better outcomes: “clarity, connection, cost, and convenience”. There were lots of great action items for marketers in each of those areas. Let’s talk specifically about cost - Healthline Media provided some interesting stats - 39% of people report having even heard of manufacturer coupons, and of those, only 22% are getting their information from a pharma website. It makes a strong case for pharma to take the message to the patient. What does it look like when that’s done well? Could you offer some best practice advice?
“We know that consumer awareness of manufacturer coupons is low, especially when we consider how very few are visiting a brand’s site for information or guidance on their prescription options. So it became obvious to us at Healthline Media that we need to bridge that gap for consumers and not only drive awareness of these opportunities, but bring them directly to the moment of action-taking.
When consumers trust the brands they’re visiting for information, they’re much more likely to action: in fact, 2 in 3 consumers began taking their current medication within the same year of their visit to a consumer drug information page on Healthline and/or Medical News Today (source: HLM CDI Page Research Study, 2022). 4 in 5 agree that the content on these destinations is informative and high-quality (same source above), reinforcing that trust and driving stronger action-taking steps, like talking to their doctor, more thoroughly understanding their options, and ultimately, signing up for cost savings.
Healthline Media leverages 3rd party tools that allow us to more effectively reach a diagnosed audience so that we can properly position a medication’s cost savings offering in front of them when they’re in a decision-making mindset, further encouraging them to act, and we found this to be incredibly impactful for conversion – in an example case study, 7-8% of those that viewed the Rx Savings module on Healthline Media CDI pages clicked to brand.com (source: IQVIA Jan-Dec 2023) – a success metric not only for our partners, but for those that are seeking cost relief from their preferred treatment, ultimately improving medication adherence and overall better health outcomes.”
– Sarah Clark, Director, B2B Marketing, Healthline Media
As we know, there’s a lot of variability in a patient’s set of needs and expectations based on their condition category and lived experience. As a marketer, what do you invest in to make sure you understand the nuance of your patient population, and how are you seeing this play out in practice?
“Data! Particularly 0 &1st-party data as we consistently take steps towards more consumer control over what data they want to share. Data is what allows us to identify our users across condition categories, their needs and future intent to tailor their experience with personalized touch points across channels. This deep personalization creates higher value for consumers but also drives value for businesses through increased engagement, retention and conversion.
Data is also critical for marketers to keep a pulse on consumer needs, behaviors and points of friction so we can evolve our approaches to serve them as the landscape shifts. This means going beyond collecting data for performance reporting to instilling a culture of data which embeds user insights across all we do from our strategy to our tactics and optimizations.
While investing in data collection, personalization and building a culture of data is high-priority, there are certainly challenges to navigate to bring it to practice. We’re navigating ongoing updates to data privacy laws and shifts in the future of 3rd party-cookies. We also must demonstrate an immediate value-exchange when a user opts to share their data with us through compelling and impactful experiences. It’s not always easy, but investing in data and the strategies it powers is well worth it for us and our consumers.”
– Berkeley Bethune, Senior Director, Relationship Marketing, Healthline Media
With many marketers and teams already gearing up for 2025 strategy and planning, what areas do you feel are ripe for innovation when it comes to patient experience?
“The patient experience needs to be of quality, but also convenient and accessible. We certainly see more adoption of technology by a patient – whether using patient portals, virtual care platforms, or digital care solutions. However, there is still the lack of seamless integration between the physical experience and the digital experience for a patient. The phygital concept is not new and utilized in other industries. Now that there are more digital elements within the healthcare ecosystem, we need to think through how to better utilize the digital experiences to improve the physical experiences and vice versa. Examples that come to mind are around the opportunity of remote patient monitoring (RPM) and clinical trials, hospital at home, data sharing for preventing disease, providing clinicians with the resources of connecting with patients on multiple channels, etc.”
– Dr. Jenny Yu, Chief Medical Officer, Healthline Media
“Consumers have access to an infinite amount of information at their fingertips, but they don’t always know what it means for them or what to do next. We have an opportunity to help consumers gain the confidence to take that next step on their individual health journeys. Providing trusted, medically-vetted information personalized for their needs and tools to guide them through decision making and action is where I see the biggest opportunity to transform how we show up for consumers when they need us most – as they navigate the complexities of the healthcare landscape.”
– Berkeley Bethune, Senior Director, Relationship Marketing, Healthline Media
“Personalization is key. Consumers are already receiving personalized messages in other verticals of their lives, so it’s critical that pharma and health offer the same areas of convenience. Health is incredibly personal and unique to each person, so personalization strategies can be a challenge, but Healthline Media utilizes over a billion user intent and behavioral signals to strategically and effectively learn what consumer data sets need over time. We leverage those insights, thanks to always-on, AI-driven machine learning, to provide the most appropriate tools and resources at specific inflection points, increasing action-taking and improving overall health outcomes. Fostering a successful data value exchange comes down to a defining value: trust. It is truly fundamental to this value exchange, particularly within the health industry, and we need to earn and protect that trust in each interaction.”
– Sarah Clark, Director, B2B Marketing, Healthline Media
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