The Digital Patient Journey

By Fathom & Astute SolutionsWith Research From Google

The Digital Patient Journey

“I have a recurring migraines and Google my symptoms.”

“I use my phone to search for doctors nearby and look at their hours.”

“I self diagnose and join a forum with “patients like me” before talking to a doctor.”

“I am referred to a specialist and read her reviews of Vitals.com.”

“I go home and join a Facebook page focusing on research around my condition.”

“I ask about side effects to medication on a private social network.”

Prospective Patients Use Online Resources

• Search is indispensable to the patient journey

• 8 in 10 healthcare inquiries start with a search engine

• 3 in 4 Americans have performed a search related to personal health

• Mobile is the patient’s constant companion

• 2013 is the year mobile traffic will eclipse desktop

• Social Media is playing a large role in healthcare

• 34% of consumers use social media to search for health information

Search, Social & Mobile

Prospective Patients Use Online Resources

• Healthcare terms are the 2nd most searched topic in Google

• 35% of U.S. adults say they have gone online specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have.

• Half of the former followed up with a visit to a medical professional

From the Pew Internet Project

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How does digital communication impact healthcare providers?

82% of doctors refer to the Internet as essential

• 80% of physicians carry smartphones• 50% of physicians report they use their

smartphones for data 5+ times per day

78% of US doctors use digital tools to gather drugs and device intelligence

70% of doctors prefer online courses over classroom continuing education

39% of physicians communicate with their patients online

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Healthcare Organizations & Search

• 77% of all patients use search prior to booking an appointment• 53% of patients visit 2 or more hospital websites before converting• 43% of visits to hospital sites originate from a search engine• 28% of visitors to health and wellness websites are 55+

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Healthcare Organizations & Search

Patients are highly likely to search, highly likely to look for educational content and highly likely to convert.

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The Importance Search Friendly Content

Because search paths are so diverse, healthcare providers will want to “cover their bases” by appearing in both types of search results.

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The Importance of Paid Search

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The Importance of Paid Search

81% of people click on a sponsored link when looking for health information

Educational content where patients gather builds trust

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Content Marketing is Critical to Attracting Patients

• 94% of patients said reputation of facility is important in hospital selection

• Only 58% of healthcare marketers use blogs vs. 74% of all marketers

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The Importance of Digital Content Marketing

When health information seekers encounter a pay wall, only 2% will pay the fee

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Digital Content is Important to Better Patient Care

• 53% of people say that information they found online led them to ask a doctor new questions

• 60% of patients say they research their prescriptions to understand them better – and even decide whether they will fill it.

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The Importance of Testimonials

• 30% of Internet users have consulted online reviews or rankings of health care services or treatments.

• 26% of Internet users have read or watched someone else’s experience about health or medical issues in the past year.

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The State Of Video in 2013

• 1 in 3 Americans watch video online every day, representing 43.5 billion video views per month.

• 1 in 4 Americans have watched an online video related to health.

• 74% of online searchers said video was helpful to their search.

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Current State Of Video & Healthcare

• 375+ YouTube Channels from Healthcare providers• 60% of patients active online say that watching a Web video

effected a personal medical decision

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The Importance of Video

Video speaks to patients and caregivers in a way that text cannot

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The Importance of Social Media

• 21% of 18-to-24 year olds follow healthcare providers on social networks

34% of consumers use social media to search for health information

90% of adults age 18-24 said they would trust medical information shared by others in their social networks

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The Importance of Social Media

Social builds a trusted brand and reputation, which is the #1 deciding factor for patients

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The Importance of Social Media

Healthcare providers recognize the value of social media

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The Importance of Mobile

31% of cellphone owners have used their phone to search for health info, Up from 17% in 2010

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The Importance of Mobile

• Mobile users expect the experience to be seamless• 60% of smartphone users expect a mobile website to load in under 3

seconds• 74% of smartphone users will leave a website if it doesn’t load in 5 seconds

or less

• Every 1 second increase in load time causes on average:• 11% fewer page views• 16% lower customer satisfaction

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Growing Trends for 2014

• Social Media• Hospitals are live-tweeting procedures, emergency room wait times, crisis

information, and more

• DIY Health• Patients are taking a do-it-yourself approach to their own treatments,

connecting online through sites like Patientslikeme.com• More and more tools and “edutainment” devoted to healthcare at home, from

health/wellness to chronic illness• Currently a $1.7B industry,

projected to reach $6B by 2015

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Growing Trends for 2014

• Increased Focus on Mobile• Only 9% of cellphone owners say they receive

texts about health-related issues

• Direct Contact with Doctors Online• Kaiser Permanente reported their doctors

receive 2.6 million emails per quarter

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Predictive Analytics

• Data set A is KNOWN event that has occurred and related to “hard” number.. Patient admissions, Flu vaccines administered, ER activity.

• Data set B is a KNOWN event that occurs in the Digital Space.• The more known instances of Point A and Point B that are available, the

more reliable a causal relationship becomes.

Stronger correlations = more accurate predications

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Predicting a Flu Outbreak

• Data set A is a data set indicating the most recent flu outbreaks.• Data set B is a data set including the activity around online activity

related to “fever” “absent from school” and “chills”• Both data sets are overlaid to find correlations

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Digital SignalsFlu Cases

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Predicting a Flu Outbreak

By monitoring conversations that have proven to be leading indicators, the next outbreak can be predicted.

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Digital SignalsFlu Cases

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Predictive Analytics

• We all leave a tremendous digital footprint.. Who we are, what we do, where we are, who we know.

• In aggregate, this data can be used to identified very specific trends

• Hard data.. Stock prices, product sales, student enrollments, or flu vaccines, can be correlated with this data

• Large sampling sizes and repeated instances ensure data integrity

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Summary

Technology is at the intersection of patients and healthcare

• Technology removes the knowledge barriers in patients lives. Patients expect access to information and use technology to take control of their healthcare (or the healthcare of others)

• Healthcare organizations and professionals see technology as essential to connecting with patients, donors, referring physicians, media and the community

• Technology is moving quickly to connect patients with providers• Leveraging digital data can allow healthcare organizations to anticipate

events or trends