The patient comes first, at all times.

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Elevate healthcare provision and treatments using digitisation.

Like other sectors, healthcare is in transformation. What was previously not possible or regarded as exceptional, such as remote consultations and home delivery of medicines is now taken for granted by patients. That’s not the whole story. Healthcare professionals, hospitals, governments, and health insurers are all facing major challenges. There has to be way to make the provision of healthcare more efficient and more attentive to qualitative evaluation. The big question is how?

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Patients have come to expect the same levels of accessibility and flexibility that are offered by financial institutions or retail players, facilitated by intuitive apps and customised services. Digital patient onboarding is essential when it comes to patient introduction and supervision in hospitals. Healthcare professionals are using digital applications more and more, both for their patients and for themselves. Digital applications to establish and maintain a better overview and manage everyday pressures at work.

Respect for privacy and specific sensitivities is an essential part of the digitisation of healthcare. Keeping medical files up to date across different healthcare institutions and health insurers requires strong integration. This doesn’t just take a lot of good will; this also requires technological know-how and knowledge of legal frameworks. At the same time, transparency is very important to patients. These are some of the complexities that are encountered in digital transformation in healthcare. It is no coincidence that players in this sector work together with external partners who offer solutions in the field of IT architecture and bridge the gap to execution and marketing.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are also looking for new ways to appeal to healthcare professionals, pharmacies and consumers. The old business model that saw representatives visiting customers that they had built relationships with over time, in their own sales territory, is long gone. Today product innovations are introduced online or introduced to the market through platforms such as Veeva. Representatives today are more like consultants than salespeople, speaking to their customers remotely. Because informed patients are increasingly developing brand preferences, for both medicines and treatments, marketing support is indispensable. For now, Key Opinion Leaders still play an important role, but brand building will be crucial in the future. Emotional campaigns, not product driven marketing will be the definitive factors.

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Behavioural interventions with digital therapeutics

In recent years, the use of digital therapeutics has been gathering pace. Diseases are prevented, monitored or treated using apps and augmented or virtual reality. Just think of diabetes, smoking addiction or muscle diseases. Digital therapeutics help patients to adjust their behaviour with the intention of curing, managing or alleviating symptoms. Digital therapeutics are not opt-in or voluntary wellness apps, but evidence-based software that is prescribed by healthcare professionals. Digital therapeutics are used in combination with 'live' therapy and sometimes exclusively as digital guidance.

Here's how you can put patients first:

Invest as much in transparency as privacy
Healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical companies are legally and morally obliged to have impeccable ethics. A secure digital safe environment for personal data is essential, but patient access to the files also has to be easy and secure.

Consider brand preferences
As patients become more empowered, and better informed they often prefer certain brands. Try to respect and accommodate these preferences. This can mean offering home delivery, for example, or offering access to an innovative subscription formula.

Increase convenience
No one likes wasting time. Work with intuitive digital tools for recording appointments and offering patients guidance. Digital planners and onboarding can make life easier for all stakeholders, hospitals, health insurance companies and individual doctors and therapists.

Would you like to know how to put the patient central by using data, successful apps and communication?

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The patient wants ... convenience.

Health care is at a tipping point. Citizens expect the same seamless experiences they enjoy with major retail players. For example, this can be a GP sending a digital prescription directly to the pharmacy after an online consultation and then having the medicines delivered to your home. Or patients booking their own appointments with specialists at the hospital. Follow-up appointments can also be online consultations. With qualitative data, it is also possible to work proactively and predictively to prevent any problems even before they arise. This is how we evolve from remedial to predictive medicine.

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How does iO work?

There are a lot of interests competing for attention in the health sector today. Citizens, who are often legally protected from being approached by the medical sector as consumers. Despite this, they do in fact, assess services and tools as consumers. Healthcare Professionals who are looking for a new, efficient way of working. Pharmaceutical companies and their representatives who focus more on automation and digitisation when serving their customers. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions that want to streamline their patients’ trajectories. There are many sensitivities that must be considered. From our experience in the pharmaceutical sector, we know how important the operational aspect is. Our clients not only opt for our strategic vision but also for the ability to turn recommendations into concrete applications, platforms, and actions. Clear and distinctive communication plays an important role in this – in healthcare, too, efforts should be made to create 'love brands' that contain an emotional and instrumental charge.

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4 pillars that every player in healthcare can build on

1. Opt for high-quality dialogue

Patients are demanding when it comes to responsiveness and follow-up. Digital services and apps such as (video) chat help doctors and healthcare providers stay in contact.

2. Focus on proximity and flexibility

Technology gives Healthcare Professionals and pharmaceutical manufacturers the chance to have a stronger presence in their patients’ daily lives. Not just through online consultations but in online orders and home delivery of medicines, for example.

3. Invest in IT architecture

When developing the IT architecture, its essential to consider the future growth and broadening of services. Think of IT as being the foundation, it has to be strong enough to support the addition of automated services and extensive content management systems in the future.

4. Create a love brand

Claim a place in your patient’s hearts by providing them with qualitative assistance in their daily lives. Don’t just think instrumentally, think relationally: focus on intelligent and predictive services, and create content that builds confidence.

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iO is 27001 certified

We use this international standard to help us deal with information security in a structured way. Availability, integrity, and confidentiality are central to how we work. The ISO 27001 certificate underlines this commitment.

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