ADI: Consumers Want Digital Health Care, But Industry’s Not Delivering

Health care is lagging other sectors in customer-centric thinking, according to a new report from Adobe Digital Insights.

Health care is lagging other sectors in customer-centric thinking, according to a new report by Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) that looks at how consumers are responding to the online tools at their disposal for managing health and fitness.

According to ADI’s survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, people who use their smartphones for health-related tasks—such as tracking their fitness and weight loss goals, refilling prescriptions, and paying medical bills—want more mobile-first experiences. Granted, the majority has not used a smartphone for such tasks, but those who have rated the experience as positive said they would like to rely more on their smartphones in the future.

“The problem is that the health-care industry, in general, hasn’t yet caught up to be able to deliver on people’s digital demands and expectations,” said Matthew Roberts, an analyst at ADI. “Furthermore, we’re seeing that the companies that are delivering smartphone experiences, such as apps, are not doing enough in driving awareness and adoption.”

Thirty-six percent said they are unsure whether their health-insurance company even offers an app.

According to ADI’s analysis of 34 billion visits to health-sector sites and apps throughout 2015, health care is quite behind in mobile. The ratio of mobile traffic to health-insurance and health-provider sites is 24% below desktop traffic, which is significant.

But the picture is a bit different when you look at health-care information sites, which are used to look up medical conditions and self-diagnose. These sites are seeing a ratio of mobile traffic 6% below desktop, a much smaller gap.

“When ranking them against other industries, we see that health information is doing a great job,” Roberts said. “They’re driving a lot of traffic to their mobile sites and are stacking up quite well against industries such as travel and retail. It’s the health insurers and health-care providers that aren’t doing a good job of converting some of their traffic onto mobile platforms. These companies are still very desktop-centric.”

That desktop mentality won’t get companies far, according to ADI’s survey. Self-identified digitally savvy consumers were twice as likely to say that the quality of health care has improved over the past five years than those who don’t consider themselves digitally savvy.

“We’re definitely seeing that a more engaged digital consumer translates into a better view of care quality,” Roberts said. “Health insurers and providers who do not innovate by leveraging digital channels risk losing share to competitors and passing up opportunities to provide a better health-care experience for patients.”

See the full report below or click here to view it on SlideShare.