Pharmaceutical Market Europe • May 2023 • 32
TRENDS
Creating communications excellence
In a fast-paced world that is embracing AI at an ever-increasing rate, this special feature delves into the topics of the moment while recognising that the power of the patient cannot be underestimated
How innovation in healthcare is helping to drive behaviour change
Does innovation lead to behaviour change, or do changes in behaviour create opportunities for innovation? The simple answer is both!
Innovation is intrinsically connected to change, and change impacts our behaviours. As Justin Trudeau said in 2019: “Change has never before been this fast, and will never again be this slow!” Change is happening now in how healthcare is defined, how healthcare is delivered and how healthcare is adopted. And this creates huge opportunities for innovation.
But innovation in healthcare is huge, so let’s focus on the specific challenge of helping patients with chronic diseases adhere to their treatment. In 2003, the World Health Organization reported that ‘adherence to long-term therapy for chronic illnesses in developed countries averages 50%’ – so the scale of this problem is massive.
To impact these numbers, we need to think about how we can help patients to change their behaviour. Behavioural change, however, is complicated. ABC of Behavioural Change Theories explores 83 different change models. BJ Fogg gives us a good starting point though, focusing on patients’ motivation, their ability to follow guidance and triggers for them to change.
And this is where opportunities to innovate in healthcare are flourishing, for example, by:
- Using data more intelligently, enabling us to connect with patients as individuals
- Targeting support messaging around individual patient motivations, helping them to remain adherent
- Using connected technology, understanding where patients are, what they are doing and when to deliver a prompt or trigger, eg Apple Watch health tracking
- Improving the delivery of learning content – thanks to platforms like Duolingo, we can help patients better understand their condition
- Understanding their decision-making process better, and the vital importance of trust, we can connect them to content that has the most impact
- Harnessing artificial intelligence-powered tools, such as www.Jasper.ai and www.copy.ai, we can accelerate the pace of conversation with patients.
To help patients achieve better outcomes, we need to innovate more than ever. And while it might seem overwhelming, the good news is that the tools and services are there already to make this a reality – not in years, or even months, but today.
Ross Taylor is Head of Digital Health at Edelman