Patient Engagement VS. Digital Patient Engagement
According to Healthcare IT News, Patient Engagement at its core is a patient’s ability and willingness to improve their health, along with interventions (from provider, pharmas, etc.) to support such participation. Patient engagement has existed in clinics and hospitals for thousands of years, however with technology redefining healthcare, the term ” patient engagement” is being reassessed throughout all departments of healthcare.
Rather than patient engagement, leading industry experts are paying closer attention to “digital patient engagement,” or the information between a patient and healthcare professional mediated directly or indirectly by technology. Pharmaceutical companies are being disrupted with cutting edge technology that is helping patients become more empowered and knowledgeable about their wellbeing. According to the Capgemini Consulting Digital Life Science Market Web Watch, there was a 300% increase in digital initiatives from 2016 to 2017. 60% of these initiatives focused on digital patient engagement.
How Pharma Companies Plan to Improve Patient Engagement
Pharma companies are moving away from “salesy” direct marketing tactics where the customer is led through a sales funnel and communication between the pharmas and patient is ended from there. Instead, Pharma leaders are focusing on inventing ways to improve a patient’s CDJ (customer decision journey), which recognizes that in a world where consumers are influenced by information, the process involved in making a purchase decision should be heavily invested in. For pharma companies, improving the consumer decision journey on medication means increasing engagement between the patient and the pharma experts.
4 ways Pharma Leaders are Improving Patient Engagement
Digital patient engagement is the future of healthcare. New and emerging patient engagement technology lies in the core of most successful American healthcare systems. Pharmas’ engagement strategies are helping care-seeking consumers to become patients and existing patients to become more knowledgeable about their health.