The Business APAC Healthcare Elites of 2019​ Final File_Healthcare Elites | Page 30

FROM THE EXPERT’S DESK
Patient-centric Approach
Personal, Predictive And Positive For Patient,
Care-giver & Healthcare Sector
O
norm, healthcare is still catching up to the reality of patient-
centricity and addressing the expectations of an informed
patient who pays for his treatment and expects more value.
ver the past two decades the healthcare industry in
India has been growing at a commendable pace,
currently it is valued as a USD 158 billion
industry and is expected to cross USD 280 billion by 2020.
This sector has witnessed an approximate of USD 5.25
billion FDI’s coming in for the hospitals and diagnostic
sector which also includes signing of around 23 deals worth
USD 679 million, together with new initiatives taken by the
Indian government, like Ayushman Bharat-National Health
Protection Mission, Mission Indradhanush. Besides, the
medical tourism in India is a growing sector and is
estimated to achieve a 20 – 25% growth rate, whereas the
hospital industry is expected to reach INR 8.6 trillion by
2022 from the present base of INR 4 trillion at a CAGR of
16-17%. Indian Pharmaceuticals Market (IPM) is the third
largest in terms of volume and thirteen largest in terms of
value. IPM is registering a growth of nearly 12 to 15 %, the
growth of the chronic therapy segment is over 25%.
Ted Levitt in 1960 shared the term ‘Marketing Myopia’.
His advice was to focus on customers, or more specifically,
the Consumers. This bring us to a valid thought that who is
the real customer, the doctor or the patient? Classically,
doctors have had a close relationship with the
pharmaceutical industry. Kessler shares that today’s
marketing practices have positively influenced the doctors
however alienated the patients. The current marketing
practices here have accustomed to the disadvantage of the
patients. To keep pace with the changing marketing
dynamics, a paradigm shift in marketing practices is the
need of the hour and very distinctively it is towards patient-
centred marketing.
While pharmaceutical companies are still predominantly
doctor-focused to get prescriptions, and hospitals and other
healthcare delivery stakeholders are still functioning in
traditional algorithms, many healthcare companies have
started to recognize this shift in the marketing dynamic and
realize that the traditional pharma models short-term focus
on deploying large numbers of reps to drive prescribing
alone is no longer viable. They are starting to implement
patient-centric marketing in a balanced manner along with
the traditional models. Tapping the patient first can build
trust, drive engagement, and make it easier for patients to
help practitioners help them. In a survey by Pharma
Marketing News, an impressive 86% of pharma executives
either agreed that “a focus on patient-centricity is the best
route to future growth & profitability”.
While the healthcare market continues to grow at such
tremendous pace fuelled by population increase, lifestyle
changes and disease profile shifts, the healthcare delivery
models have been slow to keep pace with the changing
patient attitude and expectations. As patient education and
awareness increases and with technology playing a pivotal
role in our lives, there is a paradigm shift in consumer
expectation in any service they pay for, including
healthcare. Consumers expect highly customized
experiences. Food delivery apps remember to surface your
favourite restaurants, e-commerce sites use social media
channels to retarget and remind the customers of their wish
lists. There is a radical shift in patient expectations of an
’always-on’ approach to care, disrupting the dynamics of
the patient-provider relationship. Today’s patients have
more knowledge, choice and options to handle their own
recovery. In turn, healthcare providers are needed to
understand the non-linear, multi-stage patient journey via
the different channels and touch points. In today’s digital
age, where seamless, personalized experiences are the
March 2019
The future of healthcare sector is now based on three
new“P”which is Personal, Predictive and Proactive. In this
sense it is about positive wellbeing, less of caring or curing.
However, in cases of illness, then care is about patients and
personalisation, putting people at the centre of the medical
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