Insights for What’s Ahead

• The COVID-19 pandemic drove increased usage of telehealth services, allowing improved access—especially in remote communities—and 24 percent of survey participants expect to use telehealth and remote physicians more often in the months ahead. Digital health care options will affect the efficiency and productivity of health care organizations in the future.
• However, remote visits still take a back seat to traditional doctors’ office visits. More than 38 percent of responding consumers said they expected to visit the doctor’s office more often in the next six months, which may be attributed to deferred demand and skipped appointments during the pandemic.
• Younger and more financially secure consumers have more faith in technology and technical solutions related to health care than older and less well-off consumers, making digital marketing and remote video presentation skills an important focal point for medical practices in the future.
• Twenty-three percent of survey respondents said their physical health has deteriorated since March 2020, slightly more than those who said it improved. The greatest deterioration has been in emotional/mental health and social health (personal relationships and interactions).
• Among the challenges facing the US health care system are building links to communities and diverse populations by mastering new technologies, including AI assisted health care services that can bring digital efficiency to the retail end of health care.

The Health Care Evolution

The rise of video conferencing apps such as Zoom and Zocdoc, and others to conduct remote doctor’s visits, the lingering attraction of traditional doctor’s offices, and the way younger consumers are more interested in using technology to receive health care offer opportunities for marketers and communications professionals up and down the health care value chain to make contributions to strategy and assist the health care C-suite see opportunities to grow their businesses into new markets.

One popular pandemic-era communication tool that has endured is videoconferencing, including apps such as Zoom, WebEx, and more specific tools related to telemedicine, like Zocdoc. The COVID-19 pandemic drove increased usage of telehealth services in the US, removing many barriers that patients typically have when it comes to accessing health care. For example, they won’t need to find childcare or take time off work because they can do those medical visits in their lunch break. It also removes the need to travel. Admittedly, older people may be less skilled with video technology, but as time passes these applications will allow doctors to serve more patients more efficiently and more conveniently, while still maintaining a personal touch with patients.

Our survey found 24 percent of participants expect to use telehealth and remote physicians more often in the months ahead, making this a more durable change since 2020. The marketing opportunity here centers on growth and allocating resources to meet and cultivate that market. Preventative medicine mixed with these technologies can be an easy way to boost engagement. It should also improve the profitability of medical practices that have the requisite technical skills.

Remote physicians chip away at the stickiness of doctor’s offices

Our data also confirmed the importance of traditional visits to the doctor’s office. More than 38 percent of our consumers said they expected to visit the doctor’s office more often in the next six months. A lot of this is likely deferred demand from skipped appointments, especially for preventive care, in the pandemic years. The appeal of doctor’s offices combined with the digital reach of telemedicine creates the opportunity for growth for tech-forward medical practices. In terms of racial groups, 45 percent of African Americans expect to visit the doctor’s office more in the next six months, followed by 38 percent of Hispanic Americans, and 38 percent of White survey respondents. Only 37 percent of Asian people are expecting more doctor’s visits in the near future.The shadow of the pandemic: Twenty-three percent of survey respondents said their physical health has deteriorated since March 2020, slightly higher than those who said their physical health has improved in the years since the start of the pandemic. However, in a nation with 331 million residents, 23 percent citing worsening physical health represents roughly 75 million people—a significant challenge for a tired and resource-constrained postpandemic health care system. In terms of the racial groups most likely to feel less-well-off physically, 25 percent of White respondents said their physical health had deteriorated, while the same was true of 22 percent of Hispanic people, 18 percent of Asian people, and 17 percent of African Americans.

A legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic

For all of the enthusiasm about artificial intelligence in the media, it really has not made significant inroads in health care, yet. Right now, seeing an AI health advice service only appeals to 9.5 percent of survey respondents, making it more of a curiosity than an avenue that people are actively seeking. Younger people are less averse to consulting AI health services. A total of 13 percent of under those under 35 said they expect to use AI-based health advice services in the next six months. The racial spread here was 11 percent of Hispanic people and 10 percent of White people expect to use AI health advice in the future, while African Americans come in at 8 percent. Only 6 percent of our Asian American population thinks they will do the same in the next six months. While the numbers put AI services near the bottom of the list in terms of current ways to seek health care, it clearly frames the challenges AI-related health care services face in the coming years. One other challenge for AI is the rise of health anxiety known as “cyberchondria.” This is fueled by patients looking up symptoms online and self-diagnosing, often with increased stress and heightened anxiety as a result.

Digital natives lead the way on technology in health care

 
Nearly a third of our survey population said they did not anticipate increased use of medical services in the next six months. That could be because they already have an ongoing ailment with plenty of regular appointments or financial concerns that prevent them from getting the care they might need. A closer look at the data shows that middle-income White people and Asian Americans have hearty subsets who say they plan to do more of “none of the above.” The data show a 41 percent share for White people, 36 percent for higher-income Asian Americans, and 37 percent for low-earning Asian Americans all fall into this group.

Few other options: One of the challenges that health care professionals face every day is the fact that people under 35 in the Black community tend to use the hospital more than other groups. In our data, 39 percent said they plan to use hospitals more often in the months ahead, compared with 27 percent for White people, 23 percent of Hispanic people, and 21 percent of Asian Americans in that same age group. There are many issues tangled up here, including community access, transit options, income, and population density, as well as perceived lack of other options. A subset is almost certain to have procedures that they put off during the pandemic years. So, these issues will require hospital leadership to join with marketers to craft strategies to cultivate links to this community and build out nonhospital options that care for these people to lessen the burden on emergency rooms. Telehealth services will be key in this effort, because these young people are digital natives and eight out of ten of us have smartphones these days.

And yes, money matters: Unsurprisingly, a person’s income correlates with physical health improvement during lockdown. Youth matters, too: Those under 35 also came through the pandemic with a greater share reporting improved physical health; 32 percent reported improved health, and an additional 47 percent said they felt physical health felt about the same. (Only 8 percent of those over 55 reported improved physical health versus 2020.)

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Bringing this together, the US health care system has some work to do. There are links to communities that need to be built, connections to populations developed, and new technologies to master that can bring digital efficiency to the retail end of health care. AI, telehealth services, and automation of back-end tasks will all improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care practices in the future. None of these things will be particularly intuitive to health care workers. There will also be plenty of need for marketers and communications staff to shape messaging for local impact in what remains largely a retail business in markets all across the US. While it is true that doctors may not make house calls anymore, remote sessions can be just as important. Telehealth provides real growth opportunities for medical offices over the near term, and artificial intelligence is improving by leaps and bounds every few months, so that is a platform that will need to be watched closely.

Takeaways for Health Care Marketers:

• Marketers will play a key role in making patients feel safe using telehealth platforms, whether their worry is personal or financial, or whether they live nearby or visit from hundreds of miles away.
• Honing digital marketing and remote video presentation skills will be important for all sorts of medical offices.
• Reconnecting patients with preventative care and necessary checkups is also key. Only through marketing will these people get back on track. Language skills can be a barrier here, too. But multilingual staff or multilingual AI displaying text and speaking through voice synthesis can be a big help in health care practices in areas with diverse populations.