Hospitals need to learn from Big Tech's use of consumer data to create loyal customers, Trilliant Health Chief Research Officer Sanjula Jain, PhD, wrote in the Harvard Business Review April 10.
Dr. Jain pointed to the way Big Tech companies such as Amazon and Walgreens utilize patient data to create customer retention. She pointed to data fragmentation and the limited scope of EHRs are hurdles to using data in healthcare.
Additionally, while Amazon is able to collect data on 44 percent of American consumers through its Prime members, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare only interacts with 1 percent of Americans.
"Hospitals and health systems must take a page from Amazon and other big tech companies' consumer strategy handbooks," Dr. Jain wrote. "The entire $4.3 trillion health economy will benefit the more that health systems can understand, design for, and meet consumer preferences and needs, and this process must start by leveraging the right data and establishing the right metrics."