5 CX Trends in Healthcare for 2023

The healthcare industry has seen several practices become common that otherwise took a back seat. Here are 5 CX trends in healthcare for 2023 that will dominate the industry which will shift the overall customer experience.

1. Retail Healthcare: 

The challenges faced by the healthcare industry are multifold, backed by economic constraints and a lack of resources on the primary care providers’ end. Rural hospitals are particularly at risk, owing to low financial reserves or reliance on government aid. Due to this, consumers are inclined more toward retail healthcare. “In 2022, the US retail clinic market size was valued at $3.49 billion, with additional retail companies looking to join the ranks of CVS-Aetna, Walgreens, Walmart, Amazon, and Optum-UnitedHealth Group,” says Forbes. 

While the medical industry finally embraces advanced technology, the retail healthcare system is predicted to take center stage backed by its priority to provide customers with the best overall experience.

Forrester’s research says, “In 2023, patients will choose retail health for their primary care needs as health systems, constrained by inadequate resources, fail to match retail’s elevated patient experiences.”

The primary advantages Retail Health Care can provide are personalization, cost-effectiveness, and quick responses.

2. Artificial Intelligence: 

According to Mantra Labs report, 93% of Gen Z, and 71% of Millennial customers say they would prefer to use conversational chatbots that offer ‘convenient experiences’ as their primary mode of interacting with a healthcare brand. Despite being rather slow in its evolution, AI will change, considering various factors such as clinician burnout, staggering economic resources, and the onset of retail healthcare. It offers the solution to give some structure to the plethora of data produced by the medical industry. According to Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, “97% of healthcare data goes unused because it’s unstructured. That includes X-rays and medical records attached to slides.” Machine Learning helps make some sense out of this jumble. Amazon HealthLake is one service that enables the searching and querying of unstructured data.

3. Predictive Analytics in Healthcare:

Predictive health solution has been helping in increasing operational efficiency, giving better outcomes, and reducing risks. It helps identify an individual’s phenotype (refers to an individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye color, and blood type). A person’s phenotype is determined by both their genomic makeup (genotype) and environmental factors. By enabling the studying of every patient’s particular phenotype, IoMT makes it possible for healthcare providers to offer their customers a personalized experience. They can also manage their lifestyles and conditions, thereby preventing a situation that requires an operation.

4. Extended Reality: 

Global XR market is expected to reach a market size of $1,246.57 billion growing at a steady CAGR of 24.2% by 2027. As the wearable market continues to see an upward trend, the healthcare industry gains from it by using it for pain management, remote patient monitoring, and physiotherapy. Another use case of XR is its usage in explaining the process of surgery to patients and attendants prior to starting. 

5. Telehealth: Primary care and predictive analysis will accompany TeleHealth practices, to serve patients a safer and more advanced experience at the onset of a possible outbreak of the new COVID virus: the BF 7. Additionally, with an increase in chronic diseases, telehealth in the future would be useful in keeping the patient’s symptoms under control- paired with IoMT by providing regular check-ins, monitoring vital signs, and the required support. 

Challenges Ahead: 

• Cybersecurity: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had five servers hit, and an estimated 1.3 terabytes of data was encrypted. These kinds of cases make cybersecurity one of the top priorities. The most sensitive kind of data apart from one’s financials would be their physical and mental health records. Whilst advancing in the process of virtual care, privacy should be kept as one of the top priorities to retain customers. 
• Empathy: As more and more people turn to their smartphones and laptops for answers related to their medical symptoms, it becomes a responsibility to be empathetic towards them during their treatment. With technology in the scene, it might become a challenge. But for IT and healthcare to coexist, empathy is the answer. 

Wrapping up:

Tech in healthcare, without a doubt, will make the patient experience more personalized and convenient. In the coming year, we will see more virtual communities, especially in rare diseases for which traditional care is not easily accessible. These are online platforms that enable patients to connect with others with similar conditions as well as doctors.

Despite all this, it is crucial to remember that the only constant thing that cannot be interchanged with another at the end of the day is still the human touch. Technology exists to facilitate healthcare providers sharing better experiences with patients.

(Note: The trends highlighted here are not rank-based.)