By Sarianne Gruber
Twitter: @subtleimpact
Public sentiment, as expressed by 70% of consumers polled in the 2017 Klick Health Consumer Survey on Healthcare Innovation, contend that technology will have the most positive impact on staying healthy and disease prevention as well as enable early diagnosis and better care management; coupled with a readiness and receptiveness to embrace more innovation and technology. Klick Health just released the latest findings from their online Healthcare Innovation survey of 1,012 adult consumers, conducted this past May. The results send a very strong message to tech companies and startups, in support of more investment, the endless need for new ideas and the infrastructure to research more solutions, all with the goal of bringing more viable products to market. I had the opportunity to have a phone conversation with Keith Liu, Senior Vice President of Products and Innovation from Klick Health’s headquarters located in Toronto. I was curious to know what prompted the study at this time, why the public sentiment on healthcare innovation is relevant, and how the public’s perspective on healthcare influences tomorrow’s decisions. Noted in bold print are summary statements based on the survey results. A gently edited version of our conversion follows.
When asked which industry should be most innovative, survey respondents ranked the Health and Wellness sector at the top of the list of 18 industry choices at 17%. The Pharmaceutical & Biotech and the Education sectors tied for second place at 14%, followed by Government at 12% and Hospitals at 9% to complete the top five spots. Source: 2017 Klick Health Consumer Survey on Healthcare Innovation.
At Klick Health, Liu’s work has been with clients from many therapeutic areas for both patients and healthcare professionals In the last number of years, they had invested in innovation initiatives focused on leading edge technologies on seeing how those technologies could apply to health care stakeholders. “It dawned on us to actually figure out what the public sentiment may be on the adoption of new technology as it related to healthcare. In one sense, while we are looking at how to apply innovation and technology innovation to our space, it is a different matter to understand the public’s receptivity, and that began the initiation of this research and survey,” shared Liu.
When asked which industries are perceived to be most innovative today, survey respondents ranked the Pharmaceutical & Biotech sector at 9% in fourth place of the list of 18 industry choices. Health and Wellness in fifth place at 5%, and Hospitals at 3% in seventh place. Source: 2017 Klick Health Consumer Survey on Healthcare Innovation.
From the study findings, Liu found it very interesting to see the public sentiment so prevalent today within healthcare innovation sector rather than the variety of other large sectors such as consumer electronics, transportation, telecommunications etc. “The public, as we see in the survey, believes innovation should be more in the health space as opposed to consumer, electronics, and transportation. Yet, the healthcare sector at 17% [a sum total of Pharma 9%, Wellness 5% and Hospitals 3%] as compared to other industry sectors is actually believed to be the most innovative,” noted Liu.
When asked where you do think technology will have the most positive impact on your health in the future, the majority of the survey responders at 24% said Help me stay healthy, followed by 15% selected “ Help me better manage my condition”, and tied at 14% said “Help me prevent sickness or disease” or “Help my physician provide earlier diagnosis”. Source: 2017 Klick Health Consumer Survey on Healthcare Innovation.
Our discussion touched upon an international study that documented a pushback from patients wanting less technology, especially when interfacing with their physicians. Liu considers when looking specifically at technology and innovation, there is an understanding and a prediction that technology can help individuals manage their wellness and their healthcare. ut the interesting finding appears when there is a belief from the public that innovation should enable the physician-patient experience more than just the patient self-management of their healthcare. “I don’t know is I would call it a push back per say but there is strong desire still for that professional component at least the hope is that technology isn’t to replace the human component but enhance the human engagement from patient to a physician,” imparted Liu.
When asked in what ways, if any, do you think creative-innovation healthcare will help people in the next 5 years, the majority of the survey respondents at 21% chose to “Help physicians better treat patients”, next 19% selected to “Help prevent disease” and tied at 16% was “Help patients better manage their own health” and “Help to improve disease diagnosis”. Overall 91% of consumers gave a positive reply that creative-innovation will positively impact healthcare over the next five years. Response rates were consistent across age ranges and gender. Source: 2017 Klick Health Consumer Survey on Healthcare Innovation.
On observation, Liu mentioned that the general belief or trope may be that the older demographics wouldn’t be as likely to adopt. Yet, the reality is that Boomers are adopting at the same or similar pace as the other age cohorts. Intuitively as the population ages, it would be expected that healthcare would become more and more important. An assumption may be that the Boomers were more likely in the height of their professional life during the last part of the late century, and had experienced innovation across the different sectors where they had worked. Perhaps the acceptance and adoption of innovation and technology have carried over into this century on the healthcare side. On the other end, the millennials have become accustomed to the rapid pace of change across every aspect of their lives. As exemplified by how they manage their finances, how they travel and how they work, it wouldn’t impact them as much when it comes to their health. “I think there is this general cultural shift towards ownership of their data, ownership of their lives in all aspects. I think it is really nice to see for different reasons, but it all “nets” out to be a close level of interest in technology and innovation across all genders and demographics,” concluded Liu.
What’s next, what should everyone take away from this study?
Liu responded that as investment is flowing into looking at various technologies to impact healthcare, whether it is from the industry side, the provider, insurance or a pharmaceutical company, there has to be some guidance as to public receptivity into the adoption of these technologies and innovations. What our survey tells us is that it’s there! In fact, it’s not only there, but it seems to be desired. People are expecting innovation. Whether it is a business model of innovation and whether it is technology-based innovation, they are expecting it to happen. And they want that to happen in the healthcare space, more than any other industry. The fear of bringing something to the market should not get in the way from exploration. From a provider standpoint or care provider standpoint, it sort of reaffirms the desire to explore and innovate and add some of the technology, smart home devices, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, of integrating potentially fitness wearables. These are things that should just move forward.
Suggested reading on the Klick Health Innovation Study click here.