The growing use of digital health technologies over the past year has forever changed how healthcare is delivered and consumed.

The use of telehealth was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as patients and their physicians, faced with strict social distancing rules, turned to phone and video services for their healthcare needs. By June 2020, the number of healthcare providers offering telemedicine climbed to more than 30%, up from 3% prior to the pandemic. At the same time, both professionals and consumers went online in record numbers for health news, information, and insights from their peers.

And yet, many of those digital platforms are still difficult to navigate, especially compared to the consumer technologies we rely on to watch movies, have groceries delivered, or restock on toilet paper – all without leaving the house. Over the coming years, we expect healthcare technology and platforms to rise to meet the patient’s expectations of convenience and ease.

In order to get there, data will be an essential tool to understand how patients are moving through the healthcare system, what behaviors are happening in the marketplace, and the attitudes of both patients and physicians.

To dive deeper on this topic, For the Health of It host Bill Evans, Komodo’s Chief Marketing Officer, spoke with Destry Sulkes, Executive Vice President of Growth at Klick Health, the premier life sciences marketing agency to leverage Komodo’s Healthcare Map™.

Check out the video of this conversation on the role of data in this ongoing shift in the delivery of healthcare. A transcript of their discussion follows:

Bill Evans: Welcome to For the Health of It, our series where we bring together the world's top scientists, health experts, and analysts to discuss some of the biggest challenges in healthcare today. I'm Bill Evans. With us today is Destry Sulkes, EVP of Growth at healthcare marketing agency, Klick Health. Welcome, Destry.

Destry Sulkes: Great to be here, Bill.

Bill: Klick and Komodo have recently announced a partnership that makes Klick one of the first healthcare agencies to access Komodo’s Healthcare Map. Can you talk about the partnership and how it aligns with Klick's strategy to bring better value to your customers?

Destry: Absolutely. We're thrilled with the partnership, primarily because it's giving us new insights across the healthcare ecosystem, enabling us to understand audience behaviors. We can then triangulate those insights against attitudes identified through surveys as well as against non-healthcare data that provides a glimpse into how physicians and patients spend their time outside of the healthcare realm. By doing so, we gain a full 360-degree view of our customers, enabling us to deliver the best experiences.

Bill: How are you balancing privacy and data rights? This is top of mind for those who wish to protect and secure personal information while obtaining more patient-level insights to improve the overall patient experience.

Destry: Privacy is paramount for us and choosing partners with strict policies in place, like Komodo and others, is how we approach what we do every day. We’re also exploring ways that, in the future, will allow patients and physicians to release their data when it enables them to get better care.

Bill: The concept you’re describing, around empowering the patient with better services, is aligned with the pharma industry’s goal of being more patient-centric. Where do you see opportunities for pharma to take the next step by surrounding the patient with programs, services, or initiatives that support them on their journey to wellness?

Destry: One great example springs to mind: we have a client who launched a novel migraine treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic and realized it was paramount that they took a digital- first approach. To develop their strategy, we looked to traditional consumer channels for CPG and technology products – even Netflix – to understand how they were reaching consumers and letting consumers make their own choices. As a result, this pharma brand used various consumer-focused channels, such as Spotify, Twitter, and even TikTok, in new ways to reach patients where they wanted to be reached.

Bill: Ten years from now, what do the relationships look like between pharma and its constituents; HCPs, patients, as well as agencies like Klick. Can you look into your crystal ball and predict the future?

Destry: Many of the things we’ve been forecasting are poised to become a reality. As a result, patients will be able to go online and see their doctors, either real-time or asynchronously, and get care when and how they want it. Patients will even be able to get treatments delivered straight through their phones if it's digital, or to their door, or even if they're not in their home location.

We see a real push towards the “Amazon-ification” of healthcare, making the consumer's convenience of the utmost importance. This also is making it easy for doctors to see patients wherever they are and whenever they want. We at Klick think that all these tools will converge, creating a new system that will maximize convenience and take more and more friction out of the healthcare system.

Bill: Destry, thanks for joining us today. To learn more about Klick Health, you can visit their website at klick.com. And to learn more about Komodo and how we are working to reduce the burden of disease, please check out komodohealth.com, and be sure to follow us on social media, including LinkedIn and Twitter, for news and updates about future episodes. See you next time.