Maintaining the Sacred Doctor-Patient Relationship Through Pandemic-Accelerated Technology Adoption
Authored by Leslie Jamison
The piece you’re about to read is from Klick Health’s Life (Sciences) After COVID-19 series, a collection of expert perspectives designed to inform and inspire the life sciences community for the coming changes and opportunities we anticipate as a result of this global health crisis.
The Insight
In the business world, we say happy employees make customers happy. In medicine, it is no different, happy doctors make patients happy, which results in better outcomes. What makes doctors happy? At the core of medicine, it is the doctor-patient relationship. Most physicians today will share that the reason they chose to practice medicine was to help people and build relationships with their patients over time. Based on the conversations we had with physicians for this piece, it was clear that these valued relationships with their patients remain a key driver of their satisfaction today. Although medicine has grown dramatically in its scientific and technological advancements, few would disagree that at the heart of medicine lies the human interaction between doctor and patient.
The relationship between doctors and their patients has received philosophical, sociological, and literary attention since the days of Hippocrates. But over time the additive effect of change, such as the introduction of health maintenance organizations, electronic health records (EHRs), and other technologies, as well as fragmented care and the rise of the informed patient, has chipped away at the physician-patient relationship.
Many of these changes have been outside of physicians’ control and in most cases, their opinions on how to best incorporate these changes were not sought.
Can COVID-19’s acceleration of the adoption of telemedicine serve as a tipping point to revisit improving physician satisfaction and give them a seat at the decision-making table, bringing more humanity back to medicine?
How can life sciences leaders play a role in increasing physician satisfaction and avoid doing anything that could be perceived as further degrading the doctor-patient relationship?
We don’t want to repeat the poor design and implementation of EHR systems that resulted in physicians spending more time on administration, less time with patients, and decreased overall satisfaction levels.
The Evidence
The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive changes to how healthcare is accessed and delivered in order to keep people safe and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. It is well documented how telemedicine has been adopted almost overnight due to the loosening of policies, regulations, and changes in reimbursement. When we spoke to physicians who aren’t working on the frontlines, telemedicine was described by all as the biggest change they have experienced during the pandemic.
What we uncovered through our interviews was that doctors are not concerned with new technologies like telehealth being incorporated into their practices. They do, however, want to ensure that the creativity, empathy, and trust required to deliver care is not lost.
They also know that coping with an illness is difficult and emotional, and trust and a relationship built over time are required to provide the best care.
What struck us as we listened to the physicians speak is that we have the opportunity with every change in how care is delivered to work more closely with physicians to ensure that it doesn’t negatively impact the doctor-patient relationship and their level of satisfaction. We don’t want to repeat the poor design and implementation of EHR systems that resulted in physicians spending more time on administration, less time with patients, and decreased overall satisfaction levels.
Changing health professionals’ behavior can be challenging, particularly if it involves changing existing, routinised ways of providing care developed through training, experience, and further reinforced through daily repetition.
Shifting to telemedicine has been a completely new experience for many physicians whether they wanted to use it or not. Currently, most physicians are just trying to replace what they have done in person into the virtual setting with mixed success.
Maintaining the Sacred Doctor-Patient Relationship Through Pandemic-Accelerated Technology Adoption
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Author
Leslie Jamison
EVP, Corporate Ventures (former)
As the EVP of Corporate Ventures, Leslie leverages her expertise in business, marketing, science, and human insights to identify and de-risk venture opportunities and grow them into successful businesses within life sciences that improve the lives of patients. Previously, Leslie built and led the Brand Strategy team at Klick Health, drawing upon a 25-year proven track record in building successful brands that create meaningful connections with customers. As part of her mandate, she established a center of excellence in brand development that helped fuel the agency's hypergrowth.
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