“Buts” to Navigate in the Pandemic Acceleration of the Digital and Healthcare Experience Intersection

By Clive Riddle, August 14, 2020

Accenture has just released a new 37-page report, the Accenture Digital Health Technology Vision 2020, based on a survey of 259 payer and provider healthcare executives, which found “that the vast majority (85%) of executives believe that technology has become an inextricable part of the human experience [and] furthermore, 45% of those polled said that rapid advancements in new technologies and scientific innovations are positioned to disrupt their industry.”

In a statement, Dr. Kaveh Safavi, a senior managing director in Accenture’s Health practice says that “COVID-19 has not slowed digital technology innovation; rather, it’s amplifying it to historic levels,” and surmised that “the intersection between digital technology and healthcare experiences has certainly accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and leading the future of care will demand rethinking core assumptions about the intersection of people and technology. People’s perceptions of and relationships with technology are changing, and to adapt, healthcare payers and providers need to redesign digital experiences.”

The Accenture study found 78% of the healthcare provider and payer executives believe that the stakes for innovation have never been higher, but there are a number of “buts” in their findings that present obstacles to navigate in the middle of this digital and healthcare experience intersection, including:

• 69% of healthcare payers and providers are already piloting or adopting artificial intelligence; BUT 39% said they have inclusive design or human-centric design principles in place to support human-machine collaboration.
• 71% believe that robotics will enable the next generation of services in the physical world, BUT 54% believe that their employees will be challenged to figure out how to work with robots.
• 70% of healthcare consumers polled as part of the research said they are concerned about data privacy and commercial tracking associated with their online activities, behaviors, location and interests, BUT that same number (70%) of consumers also said they expect their relationship with technology to be more prominent in their lives over the next three years.