Launching your Telehealth Product? Here’s what to look for in 2021

This year’s adoption of healthcare services utilizing telehealth technology has taken place at lightning speed. What the Mayo Clinic envisioned happening by 2030, managed to take place in six to eight weeks of early 2020. At ParkerWhite, we have over 24 years of experience marketing for healthy lifestyle and medical device brands. We see all telehealth services as an extension of the brand and an improvement in patient experience. We put together a few trends and key components to telehealth marketing to keep in mind as this market continues to grow.

Pros and Cons of Telehealth

One of the well-known cons of telehealth is the lack of in-person interaction between Physicians and patients. However, this can and should be leveraged as a new opportunity to provide patients with convenience, efficiency, reduced contamination risks and effective means to monitor compliance. How this is putting patients in control of their care and giving physicians the ability to actively monitor their patients is one of the game-changing benefits that telehealth products and services offers this new breed of care. Being able to access more patients efficiently and more quality time for in-person patients. There is a large increase in patients choosing telehealth over traditional services and this allows healthcare professionals to see more of their patients than ever before.

The Telehealth Industry Trends

While payers and providers struggle to keep up with the breakneck speed of advancement in telemedicine, medical device manufacturers and start-ups have used this past year to get funding and provide new technology to help scale telehealth in almost every division of medicine. The MedTech financial sector saw funding to startups go through the roof, with a top category being telemedicine. We pulled a few of the top industry trends from OrthoLive to share what to expect in the coming years and how to get ahead of the trends.

1. Telehealth Adoption is Increasing

Within the hospital, telehealth has been leveraged across different services to meet patient needs, but now we are seeing a shift from telehealth enabled hospital services to complete medical practice. The most common healthcare-related visit in this trending category was non-urgent medical issues handled through video chat between a physician and a patient. Although telehealth across service and product is increasing rapidly, it is not too late to evaluate how telehealth can optimize your offerings. The use of telehealth is still not the preferred approach for many Physicians, and there is still a large amount of education and optimization that needs to take place. Those who have not already adopted a telehealth service or product may begin to see difficulty in attracting new patients.

2. Older and More Vulnerable Patients will Begin to Leverage Telehealth Opportunities

The patient segment impacted most from the trending telehealth technology is the vulnerable, senior population. This is not due to the older generation being more tech-savvy, as we all know the millennials rule that sector, but rather has to do with the benefits this population will receive from technology. Patients with chronic health problems affecting multiple organ systems and resulting in cross-functional limitations can now handle routine visits from the comfort of their home which will reduce the risk of infection present in the office and hospital settings. According to the CDS, every year an estimated 648,000 people in the U.S. develop infections during hospital stays and about 75,000 lose their lives as a result. This reality is of the reasons we at ParkerWhite are proud to partner with companies that are disrupting the status quo in healthcare. We salute the many telehealth companies we’ve worked with as well as past client XENEX, who’s germ zapping robot has become a warrior on the frontlines of UV light disinfection, who struggled to get product adoption prior. They are even a staple on Grey’s Anatomy now!

3. The Telehealth Industry will Create a Spin-Off Industry of Peripheral Devices

As telehealth adoption becomes more mainstream, there will likely be a spin-off of peripheral services and devices to support the industry. This is a huge opportunity for existing medical device companies and startups. In the coming years, many of these spin-off services and devices will integrate with the telehealth workflow more thoroughly as both physicians and patients are aware and comfortable with telehealth.

When it comes to positioning and marketing your telehealth brand, ParkerWhite has extensive knowledge and experience. This is just the beginning of the next generation of connected healthcare which creates opportunities for existing brands, patients, and physicians. Healthcare companies must remember to focus on the brand by aligning the brand promise with the brand experience across all touchpoints. Companies need integrated brand strategies to ensure that every marketing interaction delivers on the brand promise and is aligned with overall business goals. If you are looking to partner with an agency to take your telehealth brand to next level, contact us.