Philadelphia, PA — Consumers have access to more healthcare information and resources and more financial responsibility for their health than ever before. Those shifts are big drivers behind the consumerization of healthcare. Ido Harari, CEO of Treato, shared some of those shifts by the numbers?
- 2015 US healthcare annual spend per person: $10,000
- 150,000+ mobile apps for consumers taking a more active role in their health
- 1:20 searches on Google is health related
- 72% of people are going online for health information (Pew Research)
People aren’t just learning about their choices online, they’re talking about them. In healthcare, that means hundreds of millions of people generating billions of conversations. In fact, in 2015, the number of personal patient and caregivers experiences aggregated on Treato topped 2.25 billion.
Healthcare companies recognize the importance of these conversations and the ways they’re listening to the social conversation has changed:
- Before: “chatter”; Now: meaningful conversations
- Before: sentiment; Now: deep business insights
- Before: how is this trending?; Now: why is this trending?
- Before: Facebook, Twitter; Now: 10,000s of web sources
- Before: listen; Now: impact
The challenges remain, though.
The first, of course, is language:
- Is MS multiple sclerosis or Ms. ?
- “I almost had a heart attack” could be counted as a “heart attack”
- “My stomach is being ripped out” might not be picked up as abdominal pain
- BP could be bi-polar or blood pressure or even British Petroleum
Then, sentiment. A statement like “I was on Byetta for a few months and suffered no side effects” could be picked up as negative because of the word suffered when it’s really a positive review.
And, finally scale. Treato is aggregating over 1 million new conversations every day.
Harari shared some examples of how brands had uncovered business-changing insights on Treato:
- A treatment for chronic autoimmune disorders uncovered social conversation that led them to understand that their launch dosage was was too high. Changing the dosage increased tRx by 18% in 12 months
- A bladder cancer drug in clinical trials found that superficial bladder cancer patients were doing well on current treatments; so, they excluded them from the trial to focus on the unmet need. That focus saved 25% in drug development costs.
- A facial cosmetic injectable identified which two indications were driving topline growth beyond facial cosmetics. They shifted their marketing to earn 118% growth in stroke patients and 50% growth with MS patients.
