Research & Insights

Digital access and experience

The escalation of available data and shifting patient expectations have made digital health solutions increasingly necessary. These solutions address consumer expectations and help reduce total cost of care. Our work defines quality digital health experiences and explores how to keep solutions accessible, trusted, and easy to use.

Featured Insights

Our Take

Meeting out-of-industry digital experiences

Banking, retail, and entertainment are far ahead of healthcare on developing the digital consumer experience. Healthcare leaders should take advantage of the lessons learned from out-of-industry counterparts. Learn five components of a digital experience healthcare can adopt from other industries.

Our Take

Addressing digital inequity is a business imperative

Addressing digital inequity is more than a moral obligation — it’s a business imperative. We’re entering a world where digital will be pervasive in healthcare, and leaders who don’t address digital inequity will have a hard time engaging with patients. Organizations that prioritize digital inequity efforts will benefit from a bigger market for digital solutions, design tools that a wider range of patients will want to use, and reduced cost-of-care through improved outcomes.

Our Take

Advancing digital equity through literacy and design

Many patients can’t connect with digitally enabled healthcare because of poor technological literacy, online language barriers, or inaccessible user experience. Tackling digital inequities requires investments and partnerships that promote patients’ digital literacy and engage them as active online participants. A patient-centered approach to digital literacy helps organizations drive better adoption of virtual tools.

Building better digital consumer experiences

In this podcast episode, we discuss what healthcare leaders need to consider when revamping their digital consumer strategy and how to ensure that patients who could benefit most from digital health aren’t being left behind.

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Tackle these challenges

Get smart fast
Bring consumerism to digital health
Improve adoption of digital tools
Define digital inequity
Make the case for digital equity

Create positive digital experiences: Surpass customer expectations by investing in the digital front door.
Use digital to help patients make better healthcare choices: Digital tools provide both support and transparency within the patient healthcare journey.
Help patients use digital health tools in their day-to-day: Go beyond access to true digital adoption by addressing digital inequity.

Create functional solutions: Deliver usable and accessible solutions that work as intended and require minimal effort from the user.
Provide customer service: Communicate quickly, empathetically, and efficiently.
Empower patients with self-service options: Help customers solve their own problems, make decisions, and perform tasks.
Personalize the digital journey: Offer customized experiences based on demographic data, engagement, location, and need.
Build an omnichannel experience: Provide the same high-quality experience across multiple channels, digital and in-person.

Build capacity with virtual options: Get genuine benefits from scalable solutions like digital triage and navigators.
Leverage other stakeholders: Identify patients without digital access, then work with industry and community partners to fill the gap.
Explore virtual-first models: Virtual first offers the promise to appropriately steer care toward lower-cost, in-network options.

Digital inequity is a social determinant of health: Digital must be recognized as a new social determinant of health because it impacts every aspect of life.
Digital equity hinges on trust: Spend time building relationships and understanding how different patient groups interact with healthcare solutions.

Digital inequity isn't binary: Digital inequities span a wide range of access, skills, and confidence.
Create a competitive, long-term strategy: Addressing digital inequity can win patient engagement and loyalty while also capturing patients on the margins.
Tie digital equity to quality: Improving access and convenience benefits patients who are most at-risk and disengaged from care.

Insights from around the industry

Emerging Idea

Virtual primary care products

The COVID-19 pandemic led many consumers to try virtual healthcare visits for the first time. Because of the positive reaction of many patients, health plans are experimenting with other virtual primary care products.

Case Study

How Mass General Brigham uses ePROs to improve the patient encounter

Leaders are always searching for tools to improve care quality, minimize variation, and demonstrate better value of care. See how Mass General Brigham leveraged electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) data.

Case Study

How Seattle Children’s Hospital limited the impacts of digital inequity

Leaders at Seattle Children's Hospital identified four critical components to building an improved data infrastructure to identify and address health disparities in their patient population.

Case Study

How TriHealth used member segmentation to customize outreach

Health plans have historically struggled to effectively communicate with members. TriHealth used psychographic segmentation to go beyond simple outreach.

Go deeper on our latest research

Digital Health

A good digital experience is just one benefit of a comprehensive digital health strategy. Explore our resources designed to improve your approach to digital health.

Access

Go beyond digital-specific solutions to expand access to care.

Consumerism

As the competitive landscape changes, more organizations are competing for healthcare consumers. Learn strategies for attracting these patients.

Patient Experience

A good digital experience is just one factor in a good patient experience. Discover our latest insights on how to ensure the highest customer satisfaction.

Telehealth

For many patients, a telehealth visit is the most impactful digital interaction they will have with healthcare.

Social Determinants of Health

Digital inequity is just one social determinant of health that impacts patient access and outcomes. Learn about other determinants and what you can do about them.

Experts

We help leaders and future leaders in the healthcare industry work smarter and faster by providing provocative insights, actionable strategies, and practical tools to support execution.

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AskAdvisory

Digital access and experience

Meeting out-of-industry digital experiences

Addressing digital inequity is a business imperative

Advancing digital equity through literacy and design

Building better digital consumer experiences

Virtual primary care products

How Mass General Brigham uses ePROs to improve the patient encounter

How Seattle Children’s Hospital limited the impacts of digital inequity