Trends to watch for the rest of 2023

It is a given that technology today is driving almost every industry toward progression, including health care. Health care professionals (HCPs) are at the center of this evolution, navigating the new terrain while still holding on to the mission to provide excellent care to patients. The past couple of years have seen a significant shift to the virtual landscape as HCPs shifted their focus and practice to include telehealth.

Harshit Jain, MD
_Doceree

As we dive deeper into 2023, we will likely see further changes in the health care ecosystem, addressing the problems pulling the industry back, such as the residual effects of the pandemic, health care affordability, and economic uncertainty. Innovations surrounding these issues have already begun to unfold through point-of-care (POC) marketing efforts and will continue throughout with these top trends to keep in mind.

Combatting the residual effects of the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for digitization across every industry, including health care. Reaching out at the POC is essential as patient interactions are now beyond the walls of the hospitals and occurring online. Unfortunately, one of the downfalls of increased digital interactions is a decrease in the opportunity for in-person interactions, making it more challenging to establish personal connections.

The adoption of POC marketing strategies will address the lack of personalization in the pharma marketing space by delivering relevant information to the physician at the opportune digital touchpoint, in turn providing the patient with an ideal health care outcome. For example, in the prescribing moment, a physician can be alerted of a discounted prescription available to the patient through their preferred platform or portal. The information is valuable to the physician, allowing them to establish a firm trust with their patient, who receives the best and most personalized form of care. Before digitization, this practice was impossible but is now necessary, and will carry on through 2023 as we move toward a virtual/digital HCP-patient environment.

Programmatic marketing to primary care physicians

We can expect artificial intelligence (AI) to play a significant role. There has been an uptick in AI-centered research and strategy across multiple industries during the last year, but AI-powered platforms will be prioritized in the health care industry to accelerate the process of drug research and development. Additionally, programmatic marketing will significantly benefit from AI through its capabilities to gather and organize large quantities of data which can then be used to segment physician audiences and serve relevant and personalized information. The data-gathering capabilities will allow AI to simplify determining eligibility conditions and patient inclusion activities.

Addressing health care affordability through POC marketing

As inflation rates continue to be an issue, along with prescription drug prices rising at an average rate of 31.6% during the past year, primary care physicians can expect their patients to continue searching for solutions to their expensive prescription bills and looking to providers for help.

However, due to the pandemic-induced physician shortage across the country, physicians are busier than ever. As the country nears economic and job market uncertainty, it is especially critical in this industry to reach physicians at the right time. The industry will need to use POC marketing portals to pass these benefits along to patients so they can continue their treatment in the light of economic uncertainty. POC marketing channels will be a valuable tool for physicians to provide relevant information to their patients, such as discounted prescriptions and affordability assistance programs.

The year 2023 has the potential to create solutions for ongoing problems while keeping pace with accelerating innovation. As we witness the convergence of technology and health care, opportunities for more efficient approaches to patient care and improved relationships will come in tandem. However, with these changes comes the need to accept and embrace the good that can come from them.

As the founder and global CEO of Doceree, Harshit Jain, MD, has been driving health transformation, delivering creative life changing solutions addressing health care affordability. As CEO, his vision and goal are to address the acute problem of rising health care costs by bringing efficiency to communications with health care professionals. For his work at Doceree, he was named Elite Disruptor 2020 by PM360 and was one of the 40 Under 40 honorees for Medical Marketing and Media’s 2021 class.