{"id":34763,"date":"2024-08-13T19:35:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T19:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prophet.com\/?p=34763"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:44:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T21:44:56","slug":"transforming-healthcare-the-power-of-platform-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prophet.com\/2024\/08\/transforming-healthcare-the-power-of-platform-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Healthcare: The Power of Platform Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Transforming Healthcare: The Power of Platform Thinking<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Platform thinking is the path to consumer-centricity in healthcare \u2013 and the key to its transformation.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Platforms are the key to illuminating the consumer journey. They allow companies to light the \u201cdark\u201d side of a consumer\u2019s journey, the post-purchase \u201cuse\u201d side, when previously, only the \u201cchoose\u201d side was visible. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, \u201cWinning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One,\u201d<\/a> platforms are the way to enable companies to observe, interact with and provide value to consumers as they engage with the organization. Many industries are already immersed in the platform race \u2013 from Amazon Prime\u2019s offering (i.e., ecommerce, Whole Foods, streaming content) to Uber and Uber One (linking rides and eats). Even financial services companies are in the game with strategies from Chase, Bank of America, and more. So, how will healthcare players engage in this new value exchange? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The beauty of healthcare is we know more about our customers than pretty much any other industry. It\u2019s about how we use that knowledge to personalize, drive conversion, and close gaps in care.<\/p>\nJeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Broadcast connection reflects the one-way communication that marked most of the 20th<\/sup> century. With the launch of the internet, websites and digital analytics, businesses were able to shine a light on the \u201cchoose\u201d side of consumers\u2019 engagement. While it\u2019s often the darker side of the consumer journey, the \u201cuse\u201d side that reflects the greatest value \u2013 both for business and for consumers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Lighting the choose and use journeys graphic Int. 1.2)<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the era of platform connection, health systems have an opportunity to capture and deliver greater value to their consumers. And the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. In healthcare, the data and knowledge gained by this level of consumer engagement could have profound effects not only on that patient and their care delivery, but a systemic impact on how to manage disease states, reduction of challenging SDOHs and improved health equity. Currently most health systems are focused on patient portals and transactional engagement, making this transformation feel daunting, elusive, or even operationally impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Healthcare is behind, and we all acknowledge this. Think about the hospitality industry and how their rewards programs generate loyalty and word of mouth \u2013 the best experience you have anywhere is the experience you want everywhere \u2013 and that includes in healthcare.<\/p>\nKen Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no doubt this is hard work. <\/strong>There are several reasons why healthcare leaders say it\u2019s been an uphill battle \u2013 from a lack of integrated technology systems to concerns around patient data privacy \u2013 these are valid reasons to be concerned. However, other highly regulated industries have shown how to connect and<\/strong> protect consumers data. We spoke with several leading healthcare innovators to understand why this work is daunting and what they are doing to overcome the challenges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Non-Proprietary Platforms Are Not Designed for Optimal User Experience <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Health systems often started with their EMR as the main platform, and what was the EMR developed to do? Billing, coding or quality documentation. They certainly weren\u2019t designed for the user experience of a clinical physician or clinical nurse user \u2013 let alone a patient.<\/p>\nJodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

2. Barriers to Risk-Taking <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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We can have zero failure when lives are at stake, zero failure. That doesn’t apply to the business-oriented things we can do. We need to ask to experiment and fail and then fail forward, to learn and get better. But it’s just culturally very tough for people nowadays.<\/p>\nJeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

3. Internal Resistance to Change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How do you have large scale change when you are changing the way people work? Number one, we cannot innovate and bring customer centricity to life without the operators \u2013 we can\u2019t move forward until everyone comes to the table.<\/p>\nSara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

4. Overcoming Data Concerns With the Right Data Value-Exchange  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I don’t think it’s truly a challenge to get consumers to believe their data is safe. I think it\u2019s about translating, what\u2019s the benefit to them? We must help patients and health consumers understand the value of sharing their data. How do we tell the story in the right way to facilitate their willingness to share private health information or behaviors?<\/p>\nJodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

5. Competing Priorities, Competing Investments, and Tremendous Pressure <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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You have to invest in building an appropriate infrastructure. You need talent that doesn\u2019t necessarily exist in the system already. You\u2019ve got to build a lot of capabilities. But these strategies, in the long term, will alleviate some of the pressures we\u2019re all facing.<\/p>\nNick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Challenges aside, shifting to a platform-based model is <\/strong>the solution to achieving the transformation C-suite executives have been collectively working towards to achieve better business and health outcomes for patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a massive amount of data that health systems today have access to. If we can get this right and gain more consumer trust, we can harness that data in a way that can help with precision medicine, drug discovery, disease prevention \u2013 it\u2019s so incredibly powerful.<\/p>\nJodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Inherent in this shift to platform thinking is a value proposition for consumers: I share information about myself so that a company can provide me with more value via content, loyalty programs and tools. Equally as important is the value generated for the organization. Today, many consumer engagements with health systems are transactional, leading to drop off, and overall brand neutrality. This is exacerbated by behaviors of younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials) who often don\u2019t have a PCP. For health systems, the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with consumers, whether they need care today or in the future, is essential for driving loyalty and patient volume in any market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the acquisition and retention of patients, there is a halo of benefits for building strong consumer relationships including increased adherence, proactive preventative care, lower costs for the system (both administrative, e.g., faster bill pay, and clinical, e.g., getting preventative screening) and better negotiating power with payers. Properly collected, synthesized and actionable data could ultimately shape future innovations in disease prevention or treatments. Platforms help C-suite leaders optimize and personalize the patient experience with critical knowledge and data-driven insights.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platforms are the way to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Make Holistic Care Real <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This has been an ongoing topic in healthcare. Health systems struggle to deliver holistic care, particularly for marginalized groups. Collecting data and applying insights to deliver better care, based on what patients really need, would drastically upend engagement and loyalty in healthcare. Consider how Amazon uses its data \u2013 from grocery shopping to prescription drugs to baby care essentials, to deliver better experiences.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u202fPatients are doing all these things in the wellness space that are tangentially attached to their health, but that health systems don\u2019t know about. We don’t know where it’s happening, and we don’t necessarily provide all the tangential services that customers want or need. The question is how much of that experience can we stitch together in partnership with the customer so we can treat the whole person?<\/p>\nSara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019re creating communities that connect cancer fighters with prospective patients \u2013 it\u2019s incredibly powerful and allows us to drive deeper, meaningful relationships with patients.<\/p>\nKen Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

2. Empower Ongoing Engagement With Health <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no surprise that consumers are willing to pay to engage with their health (i.e., Fitbit; Apple Watch; fitness, sleep, wellness tracking apps, etc.) Connecting the healthcare experience to meet consumer needs and their desire to be \u201calways on\u201d has the power to turn engagements from transitional to longitudinal. Facebook enjoys regular engagement from users drawn in by sharing features, community connections, and a focus on life\u2019s moments (\u201con this day,\u201d birthdays, etc.). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So much of the journey happens outside of the clinical experience. What are we doing to engage patients in between those appointments, those procedures? Modern consumers demand autonomy- agency in their healthcare journey. If we can give them agency, they\u2019ll take advantage of it.<\/p>\nJeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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We envision a world where care support is everywhere – a doctor prescribes a curriculum where the patient can access tools and educational content about their prescription regimen, diet, broader wellness \u2013 and not have to go digging and find it on their own.<\/p>\nKen Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

3. Create and Drive New Revenue Streams <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Platforms have the power to optimize white space opportunities to create new revenue streams. They also have the potential to shift health systems\u2019 focus from \u201csick care\u201d to \u201cwell care\u201d. Northwell Direct saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional payer model and better serve employers by strengthening the connection between health coverage and care. They implemented a plan to reduce the hurdles for providers and patients, to drive to more comprehensive wellness for the employees they serve.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have an opportunity to serve our communities through a different pathway. We took this idea and said, how do we create a business around this? Yes, to meet employer needs through services\u2026but also to disrupt the payer space because it\u2019s our belief that a more direct relationship between those who provide the care and those who pay for the care is beneficial to delivering higher quality care and to better managing and improving outcomes.<\/p>\nNick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

4. Make Personalized Care Scalable <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The balance between the hyper personal and the need to scale across a health system is daunting. There are myriad nuances that impact or shift an individual\u2019s health journey. Value-generating data collection through platforms can help to bridge this gap. Consider Nike\u2019s app family – from workout classes and SNKRS drops to monitoring runs and alerts when footwear needs replacing based on the integrated mileage tracking, they can serve consumers what they need before they know they need it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The dream of our Smart Rooms is to give us real time feedback so we can solve problems with a patient in moment \u2013 but down the road, we could use the increased data use and AI to help us anticipate when something could go wrong and recommend solutions so we can get ahead of an individual\u2019s care needs.<\/p>\nSara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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If we can hyper personalize, for example, for a person whose family was touched by asthma or coronary heart disease or cancer or diabetes, and determine how to engage that individual over a lifetime with preventative behaviors and interactions, it can cut across things like health, education, literacy, economic status and be inclusive of race, religion, gender, etc. It\u2019s going to be hard \u2013 but it\u2019s also going to be a big game changer.<\/p>\nJodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We see exciting signs of progress. It is still early days for health systems, though clear signs of progress are emerging. From OhioHealth\u2019s \u201csmart rooms\u201d to City of Hope\u2019s connected patient communities, there are signs on where health systems are heading. Others, like Advocate Health, are already leading with their LiveWell Platform, which helps consumers manage both their health and their wellness. Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health emphasized that driving organizational alignment required connecting the vision with pre-determined patient needs with business requirements.  For example, easier check-in process means less stress on front-line staff, on-line scheduling means reduced volume in the call centers and more  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We are constantly improving LiveWell, listening to what our consumers are telling us about the experience to create a feedback loop we can engineer back into the experience. We mapped the consumer needs to the business metrics and showed how lifting those needs could improve the business metrics; connecting what matters most to the consumer to what matters most to the business is our biggest challenge but where I think platforms play a large role. We believe platforms are the business model of the future. Healthcare is behind, but we want to get into the game and lead the way.<\/p>\nJamey Shiels, Senior Vice President Consumer & Digital Experience, Advocate Health <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If platforms are the answer, how do we get started? <\/strong>To begin building a Platform Connection, start by thinking about how to align your platform\u2019s needs with your organizational ambition. Winning Through Platforms<\/em> lays out a path to success, and it starts with cultural shifts to gain three key advantages: Strategic, In-Market, and Alignment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategic Advantage: Bring Something Structural to the Market That the Competition Doesn\u2019t Have  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n