By Kirsty
Whelan. Published on September 26, 2018.
"The experience at the DMV is more
favorable than it is at the doctor's office today," said Clay Johnston,
dean of the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, on a panel this
year at South by Southwest.
He's right. Think of the last time you
visited the DMV. I don't know about you, but I knew exactly what to expect, and
I walked out with exactly what I needed. I wasn't even mad at my driver's
license photo. I can't say my last visit to a doctor's office ran as smoothly.
It's confounding that the point-of-care
experience is so underwhelming given how seamlessly our lives are integrated
with health information. The watch I wear on my wrist knows how fast my heart
is beating. I carry a supercomputer in my back pocket that gives me access to
exponentially more information than "Gray's Anatomy." Yet somehow,
instead of improving the consumer experience, this proliferation of technology
has made our providers colder and our care more costly.
Our health care is the worst consumer
product on the market.
So, what's missing? What could we pair with
technology and other advances to improve the overall health-care experience?
What we need is not another algorithm but a healthy dose of a human quality
lacking in many consumer health-care interactions: empathy. And not just from
our providers, but from all stakeholders and brands that play a part or sell a
service in the process.
Empathy is so much more than how you listen
to and understand patients: It is also about what you do to improve their
journeys.
Only by forging a path to empathy can
brands and institutions hope to add value to the health-care consumer
experience. Happily, I'm encouraged by those that are leaning into this era of
patient empowerment by leading with empathy. Here are some examples.
• Cochlear produced and screened a love
story in movie theaters that acted as a hearing test in disguise for more than
97,000 Australians.
• In India, Savlon created Healthy Hands
Chalk Sticks, made from soap, for children to use in school to help prevent
foodborne illnesses.
• Merck partnered
with Amazon Alexa to hack solutions for patients with Type 2 diabetes, funding
a voice-activated scale and foot scanner to prevent diabetic foot ulcers.
• Philips invented a "kitten
scanner" to help kids become comfortable with having an MRI; it consists
of a miniaturized version of a CAT scanner, a TV screen and several toy animal
characters to serve as "patients."
• AstraZeneca created
a product in Mexico, Life Bandages, that used an added enzyme to help detect
diabetes by spotting high blood-sugar levels. Because kids hate getting shots,
this solves two problems at once: closing a wound and getting the test taken.
• Asha Ek Hope and Neurogen BSI of India
developed a sign language for eyes, Blink to Speak, to help paralyzed patients
communicate.
• The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation
produced 20 animated films to help explain cancer treatment to children.
The more that health-care systems, technology
companies, academia, health-care providers, patient advocates and drug
developers can partner in problem solving, the more likely we are to see true
innovation that's centered on empathy.
"How do you feel?" is the
simplest, most humane question you can ask people you love and care for. But
all too often, we forget to ask those who are sick—and whom we're trying to
engage as marketers.
These brands set an example for all
drugmakers for their ability to translate emotional data through empathy into
experiences that make patients' experience with their health care better—in
every stage of their journey.
Kirsty Whelan is VP of strategy for Imre Health.
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy-columns/empathy-good-marketing-medicine/314890/?itx[idio]=8812325&ito=792&itq=bddc7c6f-88e9-4565-8a50-85620a888d64
No comments:
Post a Comment