When I started Momentum one of the major drivers was about trying to transform the way we consider patient experience. I've spent a long time working in the private sector with pharma and private health considering how we would design for patients from diagnosis to treatment and beyond, but often the best of intentions and the most brilliantly conceived plans just wouldn't find there way to full fruition.
Some of that was simply about the technology available and our ability to really connect communication and initiatives in market and at scale. Happily AI, our access to data and our appreciation of UX and CX have evolved that a lot. But I think there's still some fundamental areas that need to change in order to ensure we can make a meaningful impact to people's health through the experiences we create.
Where are the challenges?
- We design globally but need local execution.
- We don't always consider communication in context of people's wider lives, systems and services
- We work in isolation of other companies, stakeholders and communities
- We run siloed disciplines from clinical development to marketing to patient advocacy
- Budget and company infrastructure also often get in the way.
So where do we go from here? Our agency over our health has never been greater and the tools we have to make things easier and more seamless have never been more abundant. I think it is about joining it all together. Bringing experience design as a discipline that sits across the whole and is responsible for connecting everything so that when we consider a patient experience, it is as much about the illness and medicine as it is the system and service.
I want to combine communication, service design and psychology so that we are not only thinking about how and when we engage patients, but also about the building blocks and pathways of the healthcare systems they go through. We used to say that patient experience couldn't sit in isolation of the healthcare professional. That's obviously true, but we must also make sure it doesn't sit in isolation of the healthcare system and service.
Anyway, I would say that cause that's what we're all about, and it's not quite version 15.0 but it does feel like time for a real shake up.