Healthcare marketers are increasingly focused on more patient-centric approaches in order to develop effective ways to bridge gaps between patients & healthcare practitioners (HCPs). What used to be solely directed to physicians as prescribers and influencers for patients, now starts with patients.
Here’s why: understanding the patient experience involves understanding emotions around different milestones - [1] pre-diagnosis suffering through [2] diagnosis, [3] post-diagnosis (3 months after), [4] living with the disease and [5] looking to the future while managing outcomes and treatment. And Patient Journey research is about focusing on these different milestones, in order to develop communications to improve the patient-doctor dialogue at each stage.
With more than 64% of adult US households having smartphones, the patient experience is no longer solely about the doctor relationship.
According to Hospitals & Health Networks, today’s patients are searching for doctors online, making appointments online, finding urgent care centers, monitoring their activity with wearables, etc. Healthcare marketers are creating detail aids and journal pieces, but also new apps and web-based support programs to get closer to patients. However, the underlying emotions driving their behavior are still similar. That means an even greater need to identify and deep dive into the patient journey. Developing effective tools, digital or other, stems from identifying insights linked to consumer emotions.
To find out more about how we obtained in-depth feedback by using imagery as a catalyst to map out the these 5 milestones of the patient experience, download our Patient Journey white paper now.