Advances in technology provide consumers better access to healthcare decisions, giving them more control over their well-being and impacting the way marketers communicate with their target audiences.
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Health Unlimited and Foresight Factory, consumer analytics company, examined this development, surveying more than 4,000 people in the US, UK, Germany and France to identify key trends to help marketers understand how consumers are dealing with structural change and integration of technology in the healthcare market.
Their report, "Tapping in to Consumer Trends to Improve Health," identified five key developments:
The Naked Consumer—Economic uncertainty and rising costs are reshaping relationships between consumers and governments. People must take ownership of future healthcare needs because governments may no longer provide "safety nets" for seniors.
Society of Sobriety—Consumers are realizing the power of their actions and are embracing more self-discipline and purposeful moderation.
Cruise Control—People are exercising more control over their health via use of self-tracking and self-diagnosis devices.
Consumer Capital—Consumers are becoming more aware of the value of their health data and selective with whom they share it with. They are making daily risk-benefit analyses about when and how to use their personal information.
Robots Know Best—Robotization, smart systems and people-free delivery are extending into healthcare and driving consumers to believe they will be able to live independently as home as they age.
Tim Bird, CEO of HealthUnlimited said of the report: “As consumers change the way they find and act on healthcare information, we need to evolve with them, and this report gives us a roadmap of what changes to expect in the healthcare space over the next several years.”
The summary report is available on the Health Unlimited website, and full findings are available by request. For more details on the report, contact Susan Duffy ([email protected]).
Lo Isidro, senior director at Real Chemistry with more than a decade of strategic communications and PA experience, has joined Narrative Strategies.
Nelson Fernandez, former North American chair of APCO Worldwide and managing director of Burson-Marsteller, has joined Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as director of communications and PA.
Lilit Bargar, who was most recently an EVP in the healthcare practice at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at GCI Health as EVP, corporate practice lead.
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