3 Challenges on the Minds of Health Technology Marketers Today

Technology can help complex health systems deliver better patient care, create efficiencies and cost savings, and even have the power to improve the patient experience. While these positive changes are taking place every day, there are also very real obstacles for technology solution providers as they work to articulate where they fit in any health care organization’s technology strategy. 

For marketers, this may mean changing how they position their brand in the market, expanding efforts to reach new decision-makers, or making clearer connections between technology offerings and priority business challenges. 

Defining the right decision-maker(s)

In the past, CIOs were often the sole decision-maker for technology within health organizations, streamlining the process for brands and marketers. But today, health providers, payors and others in the health value chain are likely to have a team of individuals tasked with vetting new technology. 

For example, a patient scheduling solution may be driven by the patient experience team, promoted by the marketing team but deployed and managed by the IT department. Each team must be involved in the purchase to ensure that the solution meets all parties’ needs. For technology solution providers, this means understanding each audience, what drives their decision, and how best to reach them – much more complex than selling to one main buyer.

While this can impact the marketing function and often extend the sales cycle, it can also improve the “stickiness” for technology brands because all major stakeholders were involved from the beginning.

Understanding security and privacy

Like many industries, health care is particularly vulnerable to data privacy, security breach activity and cyber attacks. It’s no wonder, knowing that personal health care information is worth 10 times more than a credit card on the black market. Statistics also show that hospitals accounted for one-third of all data breaches reported to OCR between 2009 and 2016.

With many health technology solutions moving to the cloud, security concerns are only natural. It’s up to technology providers to build in the proper security features, but also to know how to explain how solutions can protect hospitals and patient data, and the role the health entity should play relative to technology.

Even the best technology systems can be defeated by human error or malicious intent. Today, solution providers have an opportunity to educate and lead their customers through change management programs. This, along with the proper security features, can help health organizations better safeguard data and comply with regulations for privacy and security.

Demonstrating how your solution moves the needle

Health care technology is adopted for a plethora of reasons, with cost savings usually a top purchase driver. But most health organizations are now prioritizing patient satisfaction, patient loyalty and patient experience near the top as well.

For marketers, this means crafting a tangible connection between your solution and these top purchase drivers. Consider how you’ll demonstrate value beyond cost savings and demonstrate how your solutions deliver on all of the buyer’s KPIs, which are now much more complex than just cost savings.

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