I know that it’s traditional to save these types of predictions for the turn of the year but to avoid competing with the year-end deluge of fortune tellers, I thought I’d share my predictions now.

We’ve been invited to apply to become a rosta agency for a large global pharmaceutical group. The procurement department have sent me a lengthy questionnaire. It’s all pretty standard stuff but I really enjoyed responding to one of the questions they asked because it required me to dust off my crystal ball. Here’s the question:

How do you see healthcare digital coms activities in the next 5 years in terms of growth, challenges and changes?

I know that it’s traditional to save these types of predictions for the turn of the year but to avoid competing with the year-end deluge of soothsayers, I thought I’d share my predictions now.

1) Use of digital communications in the healthcare sector will increase considerably. I’ve always considered the healthcare industry to be a late adopter of web technologies due mainly to regulatory risk. However, a better understanding of these risks and how to mitigate them is now causing the industry to come out of its digital shell. I strongly believe we’re going to see an explosion in investment online.

The healthcare industry is a laggard when it comes to adoption of internet technologies

2) Healthcare companies will find focused and valuable ways to use social media but overall, social media hype will die down as they realise (through a better understanding of analytics) that they need to get The Fundamentals right: website, search, and how to optimise these. As has always been the case, The Fundamentals, will continue to drive much bigger volumes and conversions than social media.

3) Mobile channels will grow in importance to the point where they become one of The Fundamentals I talk about in 2 above. However, whilst the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt internet technologies up until now, we’re going to get a leapfrog effect with the industry’s adoption of the mobile web happening in tandem with most other industries. By and large, regulatory risk is the same both for the desktop web and the mobile web.

4) Healthcare companies will become more sophisticated when it comes to measurement of digital activities and data associated with these. Senior managers will demand greater evidence of business value delivered and business performance improvements. This challenge by senior management and stronger focus on real goals will lead to much more strategic approaches to digital activities (this is why I say in 2 above that social media hype will die down).

5) We are going to see more care being delivered online by doctors, hospitals and caregivers (check out this 5-year study regarding virtual care of HIV patients http://blog.hospitalclinic.org/en/2011/03/assistencia-virtual-eina-control-vih/). Healthcare companies will see this as an opportunity to partner with caregivers and will help develop virtual care programmes tailored around their own products. A great example of this is Ethicon’s Realize My Success programme in bariatrics https://www.realizemysuccess.com/launch.htm .

6) Wide adoption of smart phones will mean healthcare companies will find better ways to engage with their sales reps and provide much more on-the-road support, training and collaboration between sales reps. We’re going to see the mobile intranet really taking off for other employees as well.
I’ve most probably missed some really obvious predictions (and no doubt some less obvious ones too). If you’ve got any of your own, do please share them by posting a comment below.