Digital health is advancing rapidly, leaving hospitals, health systems, and group practices scrambling to keep pace.
Consumers today expect the same seamless experience from their healthcare providers that they get from their favorite banks or retail stores. To meet their needs, healthcare executives must get more from their current technologies and form tighter partnerships with the right vendors… all while navigating growing margin pressures.
It’s a delicate balance, and you can achieve it by knowing what’s ahead. Let’s look at 4 digital health trends in 2023 and explore how you can meet them head-on.
Trend #1: Digital health will move well beyond telehealth.
The COVID-19 pandemic unlocked the hidden value of telehealth. But it also created a bit of a misconception. The pressing need to stand up virtual visits quickly led some executives to think that telehealth is digital health.
In reality, digital health is so much more than telehealth. Digital activation must include patient access, acquisition, engagement, and loyalty. That’s why the #1 digital heath trend in 2023 is that digital health will move well beyond telehealth.
This trend is backed up by what patients want. Studies show that 63% of patients will leave an existing provider for one who offers a better holistic digital experience. That means hospitals, health systems, and group practices must find multiple ways to engage with patients, including mobile apps, web apps, and app-less experiences such as live chat and live agent.
Trend #2: Health systems will create and document digital health strategies.
Digital health is on track to reach $33 billion in market share by 2027. Such rapid growth means all healthcare organizations—large or small—must stay on the leading edge by developing a digital health strategy in 2023.
Surprisingly, this is one area where health systems are often lacking. Data show that 48% of hospitals have no documented digital health strategies. Without a clear strategy, organizations struggle to maximize their tech investments, making it nearly impossible for them to achieve the type of convenience and automation today’s consumers say they want.
Organizations without a digital health strategy will also be prone to point solution chaos, which makes things more complex for patients and providers—and more expensive. The bottom line: You can’t create a holistic patient experience without understanding all your solutions, knowing which ones bring you the most value, and bringing them together.
Trend #3: Health systems will demand more from their digital health vendors.
One of the reasons health systems sometimes fail to create a digital health strategy is because they’ve been burned in the past. Nearly every healthcare executive has a horror story about making an expensive software purchase only to find that it didn’t deliver on what it promised.
This has led to a crisis of confidence between healthcare leaders and solution providers. In fact, fewer than 25% of people say they feel confident that their selected vendor was the best choice for their unique needs.
That’s why digital health trend #3 in 2023 is to demand more from your digital health vendors. To meet this trend, look beyond the bells, whistles, and promises of the next great point solution. Instead, seek a partner who can evaluate your digital health maturity and give you a clear path forward. Find vendors who can help you consolidate patient access points, reduce unnecessary capital costs, and keep things simple.
Trend #4: Digital health strategies will go mobile-first.
When consumers go on their dream vacation, they begin by downloading their preferred hotel chain’s mobile app. They use the app to find the right hotel in the right location at the right price. They reserve their room in-app. Then, once they reach their destination, they engage with the app again to enhance their experience and improve their stay.
To deliver this type of integrated, cohesive journey, hospitals and health systems must create a one-stop-shop with their mobile apps. Most struggle mightily to do so. Some deploy too many apps, with top U.S. hospitals averaging 3.8 patient-facing mobile apps. Others don’t offer any mobile apps at all.
It’s time to bring it all together. That’s why the #4 digital health trend for 2023 is to create a mobile-first digital health strategy. Your strategy should have a clear goal: to reduce friction for patients, providers, and consumers at every single touch point. One potential solution: creating a unified, mobile-first, and highly integrated Digital Front Door that wraps multiple solutions around your EHR’s patient portal.
How to meet the 4 digital health trends in 2023
The status quo won’t help you meet the top four digital health trends in 2023. Neither will buying another disconnected point solution that doesn’t play well with others. What most health systems need at this stage of their digital health maturity is a way to take the fantastic tools they already have and bring them together.
To help you do just that, DeliverHealth created the DeliverHealth Solutions Integrator (DHSI™) The first of its kind in healthcare, DHSI combines people, process and technology to help healthcare organizations create a unified digital health journey that brings patients and providers closer together.
DHSI’s foundation is the DeliverHealth Platform. It’s built on a secure Microsoft Azure framework and leverages leading-edge technologies like AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and identity management. The platform is tech-agnostic. That means it’s capable of using APIs, software development kits (SDKs), and HL7 feeds to integrate multiple solutions and craft them into a complete, end-to-end digital health ecosystem.
Health systems, hospitals, and group practices will get multiple benefits from DHSI. Because we already have nearly 30 out-of-the-box integrations with many of the most popular solution providers in healthcare, it’s a good bet we can bring your EHR patient portal, wayfinding, bill pay, health risk assessments, and more into a single place, giving your patients and providers a one-stop shop.
What’s more, with DHSI, you’ll get deep expertise from people who know digital health inside and out. You’ll get a vendor with the expertise to review your tech stack, help you identify quick wins, and carve a unique digital health strategy built on industry best practices. You’ll also benefit from adoption experts who will show you how to get patients to engage with both your app and app-less experiences.
Digital health can be overwhelming. Let’s make it simpler.
One reason healthcare organizations struggle with digital health is because it can seem daunting. We want to simplify it for you. The good news about meeting the 4 digital health trends in 2023 is that once you get started with just one integration or improvement effort—adding an AI virtual assistant, for example—it makes it easier to tackle the rest.
If you want to know more about 2023 digital health trends and how DHSI works, check out this presentation that I hosted in conjunction with our friends at The Millennium Alliance. Once you watch it, reach out to me with any questions. Let’s talk.