Collaborations as an economic multiplier

As the healthcare landscape continues to rapidly evolve, there’s one change gaining real momentum: The shifting power dynamic between HCPs and patients. To get a full understanding of this shift, let’s take a quick look at the history of this relationship:

HCPs were once the “Ivory Tower of Authority”

Traditionally, HCPs held all the cards — the information, the treatment, and the outcomes — as the definitive source of authority when it came to diagnosis and patient care. Their relationship with patients was hierarchical, even paternalistic, and interactions with patients were predictably consistent.

This relationship was a clear, one-way exchange that required seemingly little input from patients other than showing up and choosing whether or not to follow orders.

Due to changes in societal values, medical knowledge and advancements, and most importantly the overwhelming access to limitless information — this relationship has shifted from a one-sided experience to a two-way conversation that has been evolving rapidly over the last two decades.

From “Yes, doctor” to “Dr. Google said it might be…”

Today’s patients are more empowered and equipped to navigate their healthcare journey than ever before, with the acceleration of medical, consumer-friendly content so conveniently accessible at their fingertips.  

Whether this has actually led to better health outcomes is up for debate, but this degree of active involvement shows no signs of fading. This empowerment shift has fundamentally changed what patients want from their HCP relationship. This has implications, such as patients making potential decisions based on misinformation, creating strained relationships with their HCPs, cost-driven decision-making, or deliberate non-adherence of doctor’s advice. It’s quite the sea of change for both sides to navigate.

One of the biggest shifts has been social media becoming the default first stop for healthcare conversations.

From “pull” to “push” media

Historically, HCPs naturally pulled patients immediately into the doctor’s office. Now, there is more momentum towards a push, or nudge, dynamic as HCPs are increasingly meeting patients first in the digital world before ever setting foot in a doctor’s office. Patients are turning to social for healthcare advice and with content being more entertaining, hyper-targeted, and algorithmically catered to the individual, it’s become increasingly important for HCPs to hold a trustworthy and meaningful presence online. Social is now a primary place for patients to learn from HCPs, share experiences, cope, connect, and equip themselves with critical health information. It’s been especially meaningful for people experiencing a chronic condition or difficult disease state, as they can find kinship, tap into peer groups, and talk about sensitive topics in an easily accessible and free safe space. 

HCPs get social

One way HCPs are responding is by increasingly activating their influence on social media. Today, 67% of practicing HCPs are under 40 (YouGov). That means they’ve spent their entire career in the age of social media, so it’s no foreign space to them. While it previously was more common for HCPs to engage in social on a personal level, the COVID pandemic sparked a need for HCPs to share critical healthcare information virtually, which accelerated behavior of social media as a canvas for the medical professional. HCPs historically built credibility as a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) at events or other professional forums that were peer-to-peer focused. Today, social media allows them to become influential much earlier in their career because they can engage with patients in more ways.   

Rise of the Medfluencer

With this rise in social consumption and engagement amongst HCPs, the medical influencer — or ‘Medfluencer’ — has emerged. There’s around 20,000 Medfluencers today, some with millions of followers. These HCPs are posting health-related content on their personal channels frequently and flooding TikTok in recent years.

Medfluencers are rising in popularity and patients are engaging fully with their content.  

HCPs are putting a variety of content on their social feeds: from debunking myths, to providing advice, answering FAQs, suggesting life hacks, sharing a day in the life, and even playfully poking fun at their youth... an unexpected, yet appreciated tone from a medical professional.

Increased presence of HCPs as a Medfluencer has many benefits for patients and society at large. It’s enhancing communication with patients, helping to improve health literacy, meeting them where they are, and rebuilding trust with HCPs.  

What the rise of Medfluencers means for marketers

This influence has continued to accelerate the shift to self-agency in a patient’s healthcare journey. Medfluencers are reshaping how patients perceive, access, and engage with their own health and the healthcare category at large.

At minimum, brands need to recognize this wave of change and reflect on how to better connect with patients engaged with their healthcare journey. It’s time for brands to see HCP’s digital presence and voice on social as an opportunity to meaningfully engage patients as consumers in their world, vs waiting for their next doctor’s appointment. Where the prescription pad held all the power in previous decades, now there is power literally in the palm of consumer’s hands — their phones. Brands must consider the implications — and opportunities — associated with this in order to truly connect and motivate today’s patients.