In the first half of 2023, hospital and health system marketing leaders encountered an "explosion of interest" in artificial intelligence while figuring out how to deploy analytics with a focus on privacy and attracting talent via marketing campaigns, according to the chief marketing officer of Madison, Wis.-based UW Health.
Here are the top three healthcare marketing trends so far this year, as Chris Roth, marketing chief for the Wisconsin academic health system, told Becker's:
1. Navigating the explosion of interest in AI coupled with the lack of established guidelines.
We continue to explore ways to utilize AI to support our work in marketing and across our organization. Current marketing uses include generative AI and large language models for software engineering and content ideation, natural language processing for sentiment analysis on patient feedback and website usage insights. Across our organization, we are exploring how AI can help create efficiencies, supplement workforce gaps, and support clinical operations. Our current pilot with Epic and Microsoft for clinician inbox management is a great example of deploying AI in a way that can increase provider productivity, allowing more time to focus on additional clinical duties. With a technology that is evolving so quickly, there are limited guidelines to establish policies for uses.
2. Managing the impact of regulatory changes on analytics in tracking marketing impact.
Lawsuits and regulatory bulletins around how HIPAA and protected health information relate to data-captured consumer web usage have changed how the healthcare industry approaches using marketing analytics platforms. The ability to target consumers and connect patients to care offerings is critical to supporting programs offered at UW Health. An ongoing challenge for marketers is finding solutions that maintain compliance while offering needed analytics to monitor and report on marketing campaign performance. We've overcome many of these hurdles by implementing first-party tracking technologies that are HIPAA compliant.
3. The expanding role of marketing in workforce recruitment and retention.
Building the workforce has emerged as a top priority for health systems across all roles within the organization. In addition to the heightened competition to attract clinical roles, health systems are competing for top talent across areas such as data and analytics with companies outside of healthcare. Meeting the emerging needs of healthcare recruitment aligns well with the capabilities of marketers to generate awareness, raise consideration, and help bring more candidates to our recruiting teams. They promote the organizational brand and help connect recruits to the mission and long term career opportunities using similar campaign techniques to help connect patients to innovative clinical care solutions.