Healthcare is being challenged to evolve in ways that mirror the convenience, personalization, and immediacy people now expect from every other aspect of their lives.
While the industry has long focused on clinical excellence and regulatory compliance, leaders say it has lagged behind in meeting consumers where they are. The next era of medicine, they argue, must be designed not only around treatments and outcomes — but around patient experience, trust, and accessibility.
“Healthcare professionals have a habit of looking only inward when it comes to industry trends and changes that require us to consider how they affect our practice and clinical operations,” said Jimmy Chung, MD, chief medical officer-Advantus of Bon Secours Mercy Health in Cincinnati. “However, we need to be more perceptive of how the public sees healthcare, especially the newer generations.”
The patient experience starts with scheduling visits, which for many hospitals and physician offices is still a very manual process. But that’s starting to change.
“Patients don’t want to wait on hold for 10 minutes, be told the next appointment is six months out, and then have a challenge figuring out what other services they need,” said Nariman Heshmati, MD, chief physician and operations executive at Lee Health in Fort Myers, Fla. “If they have a concern that they have diabetes, they want to rapidly get in, and sometimes that’s a virtual visit, but also seamlessly set up to see a dietician, get advice on exercise and weight loss and have a follow up plan to adjust any necessary medications.”
Many other industries have simplified the experience for customers leveraging technology, and artificial intelligence is making it easy to personalize accessibility even more.
“[Patients] don’t want to navigate a complex system but rather have the system be designed to help guide them and deliver the best outcomes,” said Dr. Heshmati. “Healthcare systems for many years did this in areas like oncology but are now responding and expanding those offerings to other common disease states.”
The benefits of more patient-focused initiatives have a meaningful impact on clinical outcomes and operations as well.
“Patient experience has evolved beyond hospitality touches to become a measurable driver of outcomes,” said Randi Goldman, MD, associate professor of Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “We have evidence that trust, communication and continuity influence adherence, recovery and health equity. Yet, investment in patient-centered design often lags behind investment in technology or infrastructure.”
At leading edge health systems, that gap is shrinking. Patients want to customize all services and manage their lives instantly on their phones. They want to schedule appointments any time of day, access clinicians and coordinate their own care. Technology and data intelligence is making that level of customization possible.
“Patients used to wait weeks or longer for an appointment with a physician to ask a health related question; now they can get an answer within a few seconds, and with AI becoming more and more reliable every day, it is becoming the go-to for many, who also have found the answers to be more accurate and empathetic than a real human,” said Dr. Chung.”We physicians have always claimed that ‘the doctor knows what is best for their patients.’ I’m no longer sure if I agree with this assertion, as there is growing data suggesting that a computer looking at a million points of data from thousands of sources could be more accurate than a physician with a few hundred encounters in their experience.”
AI has evolved rapidly in healthcare over the last few years and many others initially skeptical of the technology are now coming around. Armed with the right training and monitoring, AI can support clinical decision making and patient education, which excites Dr. Chung.
Not all physicians feel the same way.
“While some physicians may cringe at the thought of giving away freely to the public all that medical knowledge they had to earn the right to master over years of education, the reality is that health information is easier to access and understand than ever before,” said Dr. Chung. “The practice of speaking in a dead language and hiding research in inaccessible academic journals ostensibly to ‘protect the public from themselves’ is itself archaic and unnecessary. The longer medical professionals separate themselves from the public behind white coats and titles, the more the public will grow to distrust them and will rely on AI-aided self-help.”
Trust in healthcare providers will be critical for a thriving healthcare system in the future. Can health systems keep up?
“What the medical profession needs to do is be prepared to reinvent itself to align with modern consumers who want to manage their own health on their terms, using modern tools,” said Dr. Chung. “When the car was invented and people stopped riding horses, saddle makers would have failed if they thought the solution was to make nicer saddles. They had to learn how to make car seats.”
