In our recent webinar ‘Data Strategies for Modern Healthcare Leaders’, we brought together experts from Tealium and BlastX to discuss cutting-edge data strategies for modern healthcare leaders. The panel explored the challenges facing healthcare organizations in an era of rapidly changing patient privacy regulations and evolving consumer expectations. They emphasized three key behaviors Healthcare organizations must adopt to succeed in data management and digital personalization to improve patient experiences.
- Take a proactive approach to data management.
- Balance regulatory compliance with the demand for personalized patient experiences.
- Leverage advanced MarTech capabilities to create tailored patient experiences while protecting patient privacy.
In this article, we’ve summarized their main points, and we encourage you to watch the on-demand webinar ‘Data Strategies for Modern Healthcare Leaders’ in its entirety for more details and a post-discussion Q&A session. You’ll also hear more real-world examples demonstrating how small, data-driven changes can lead to significant improvements in patient experience and operational efficiency.
Healthcare MarTech Expert Panelist Introductions
Nirmal Vemanna is Product Lead for Healthcare and Life Sciences at Tealium. He provides industry expertise and previously worked in Healthcare and Pharma for over a decade.
Joe Christopher is VP of Technology Solutions at BlastX. He’s been at BlastX for 17 years, helping Healthcare clients navigate MarTech and digital analytics challenges as covered entities.
Richard Morrow is Senior Director of MarTech Engineering at BlastX. He leads implementation and integration efforts, including Healthcare, and previously implemented CDP strategies for Healthcare and Pharma clients.
Healthcare Data Strategy and Patient Privacy Go Hand-In-Hand
Nirmal Vemanna: Let’s discuss challenges faced by healthcare organizations, starting with changing patient privacy regulations. What’s your take on this, especially regarding the recent Court ruling on the American Hospital Association (AHA) lawsuit against The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about online tracking?
Joe Christopher: Despite regulatory changes, healthcare entities should always focus on protecting data and improving patient experience. Let’s review recent changes:
- December 2022: OCR and HHS issued guidance on online tracking technologies.
- July 2023: HHS and FTC sent cautionary letters about Google Analytics and Meta Pixel use.
- March 2024: Bulletin update expanded Protected Health Information (PHI) definition for unauthenticated web pages.
These changes caught some organizations off-guard, leading to the removal of analytics and marketing tags. While removing tags may mean compliance, this hinders data-driven patient experiences.
Regarding the AHA lawsuit, the judge ruled the tracking bulletin unlawful. However, this shouldn’t significantly impact healthcare organizations committed to digital patient experiences since the entire journey, not just unauthenticated pages, is what builds great experiences.
Nirmal Vemanna: Agreed. Regulations will keep changing, as the AHA lawsuit ruling shows. Organizations shouldn’t wait for regulatory changes before acting.
They should adopt a proactive mindset, developing a flexible data framework and strategy. This approach enables agility in the face of shifting regulations, setting them up for long-term success rather than relying on favorable rulings or hoping for lenient regulations.
Fear-Based Data Strategies Hold Back Patient Experience Improvements
Nirmal Vemanna: As healthcare becomes more digital, especially with the rise of virtual care and broadening PHI definitions, do you see any new threats to patient and consumer data?
Richard Morrow: The threat is twofold: lacking the right data foundation to adapt to changing requirements, and managing evolving people, processes, and technologies.
Healthcare organizations, like other businesses, face consumer expectations for personalization and less friction. They’re trying to meet these demands, such as through virtual healthcare. The challenge is to address these consumer needs while continuously solving for emerging threats and maintaining data security.
Joe Christopher: Abandoning digital analytics prevents meeting patient expectations. However, misusing data violates regulations, risking fines and eroding trust. Changing regulations can’t be ignored.
A solid data foundation is crucial. Personalizing patient experiences requires data from various sources. Fortunately, MarTech has advanced, offering solutions to this challenge. This addresses the technology aspect of the people, processes, and technology trifecta, which we can discuss further.
Nirmal Vemanna: Threats are increasing due to new channels and changing consumer expectations. While MarTech capabilities offer numerous possibilities, organizations can’t avoid using data to escape regulatory violations. Not using data prevents serving customers as expected.
Organizations can’t avoid using data to escape regulatory violations—in fact, this approach does more harm than good.
Avoiding data use due to HIPAA violation fears is uninformed given MarTech advancements. Organizations can now control patient data precisely, creating personalized patient experiences without violating trust or regulations. Leveraging data is in their best interest.
Personalization is an Imperative for Better Patient Experiences
Nirmal Vemanna: What other marketing challenges do you encounter when working with healthcare organizations?
Joe Christopher: Studies show that lack of personalization greatly frustrates patients. One Dynata study found over half of consumers prefer DMV visits or jury duty to dealing with health insurance issues.
As AI integration in patient experience approaches, proper data groundwork is crucial for improvement.
Experience is a key differentiator. Fragmented or friction-filled experiences reduce adoption and continued use, potentially negating virtual healthcare benefits. Digital patient experiences are preferred for convenience, personalization, and improved outcomes, especially for chronic condition monitoring.
Personalization should extend to member portals and apps, with effectiveness measured. As AI integration in patient experience approaches, proper data groundwork is crucial for improvement.
Nirmal Vemanna: Not providing this should be seen as a threat, as organizations miss opportunities to engage patients effectively through integrated technologies like remote monitoring, smart devices, wearables, and AI. By not leveraging data, they lose chances to serve customers intuitively.
Patients have purchasing power and will seek care elsewhere if unsatisfied. Personalization helps organizations earn and maintain patient loyalty. Physician personalization is often overlooked but crucial. Understanding what drives physician referrals and attracts top talent can be a powerful tool in improving patient health outcomes. Organizations should aim to provide the right care and attract the best physicians to enhance patient health.
The First Steps Towards Healthcare Data Strategies that Enable Patient Personalization
Nirmal Vemanna: Not every healthcare customer or prospect I speak to feels ready to deliver such personalized patient experiences. What would you say to them? What sort of mindset should they adopt?
Joe Christopher: Experience is a competitive advantage and should be a top priority. However, we must understand the realities preventing organizations from feeling ready. Many operate with legacy systems, making integration and real-time data availability challenging. Data silos hinder a unified patient view. Regulatory uncertainty can lead to hesitancy in investing, fearing future non-compliance. Building the right foundation and infrastructure prepares organizations to pivot with changes rather than being disrupted. There’s also a shortage of talent that understands both MarTech and healthcare regulations. Despite these challenges, experts can help assess organizational readiness and navigate these complexities.
Nirmal Vemanna: Understanding and acknowledging existing gaps in technology, mindset, and skills is crucial for starting the consumer personalization journey. This recognition is the first step towards progress.
Healthcare Data Strategy Actions to Advance Personalized Patient Experiences
Nirmal Vemanna: Let’s discuss strategies and solutions for these challenges. Specifically, how have you seen organizations adapt to the constantly changing regulatory landscape in healthcare?
Joe Christopher: Compliance and governance in digital analytics and marketing are often less mature than in other areas. This stems from a lack of understanding between privacy and marketing/product teams, and misconceptions about technology capabilities.
My recommendations:
- Establish a cross-functional compliance team to monitor regulatory changes.
- Conduct regular risk assessments and audits.
- Implement controls for data sharing with third parties, including approval processes and monitoring changes in data scope.
Richard Morrow: From a MarTech perspective, a key strategy is documenting organizational roles and their interactions with data, mapping this to different systems. This creates an environment of knowledge, control, and understanding of data flow and risk limitation.
It’s crucial to ensure that the right people, vendors, and systems receive appropriate data without creating risks for data leaks or unauthorized data transfers.
When building infrastructure, ensure vendors sign a Business Associates Agreement (BAA). This is essential for HIPAA compliance. Tealium, for example, has been a great partner in this regard, willing to sign BAAs and provide necessary control and compliance measures for our healthcare clients.
A Business Associates Agreement (BAA) is essential for HIPAA compliance—make sure your vendor is willing to sign one.
Nirmal Vemanna: BAA and related terms have become buzzwords since the OCR bulletin two years ago, indicating growing awareness in the industry. However, when functions like privacy, analytics, and marketing operate in isolation, they miss opportunities for meaningful customer engagement.
Privacy teams focused solely on compliance may not realize the potential of patient data for compliant engagement. Similarly, analytics and marketing teams may overlook changing regulations while pursuing user insights.
Cross-team collaboration and a cross-functional compliance team can provide end-to-end expertise in data collection, management, and activation. This approach allows all functions to work together, learn from each other and the customer, while staying compliant and protecting brand reputation.
Navigating Transparency and Patient Consent
Nirmal Vemanna: How do you see consent fitting into this picture? How crucial is patient or member consent in healthcare personalization?
Richard Morrow: Consent initiates the data lineage chain and should never be presumed. Be explicit about data collection and transparent about its intended use. Many companies avoid discussing data applications, but consumers appreciate knowing how their information will be used.
Clarity in data usage builds customer trust. Without it, you risk losing customers. View consent as a gateway, not a burden. It strengthens brand reputation and allows for cleaner marketing execution. Clear consent guidelines streamline operations by eliminating uncertainty about data usage permissions.
Nirmal Vemanna: Transparency and trust are crucial for consent and patient engagement. Organizations should consider if they’d assume consent for their own or loved ones’ data. Full transparency is necessary regarding data collection, processing, and usage.
Consent must be explicit, not implicit, and isn’t all-encompassing. Consenting to data collection doesn’t imply consent for unstated uses. Never assume data can be used in ways not explicitly agreed to by patients or consumers. Many regulatory issues stem from such assumptions.
HIPAA Readiness in the World of Patient Experience
Nirmal Vemanna: What’s your perspective on HIPAA-compliant analytics? What does it mean for an organization to conduct analytics in a compliant manner?
Joe Christopher: Regarding the AHA lawsuit ruling, for healthcare organizations focused on digital patient experience, it may not be as significant as it seems. The patient experience should be understood comprehensively, from unauthenticated web browsing to authenticated portal interactions. Combining this data provides insights for real personalization, requiring a compliant analytics platform.
The patient experience should be understood comprehensively, from unauthenticated web browsing to authenticated portal interactions.
Top-tier platforms like Amplitude and Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, which integrate well with Tealium, can support this. However, caution and sound strategy are still necessary when collecting data.
For Google Analytics (GA4), which won’t sign a BAA for HIPAA compliance, one solution is to adjust usage to ensure no PHI is sent. This involves anonymizing data, adjusting transmission methods, and implementing controls. Tealium offers technology to navigate these challenges and protect data appropriately.
Nirmal Vemanna: The AHA lawsuit states that IP address with authenticated website visits isn’t PHI, but there’s a caveat. This applies only if the visit isn’t related to the visitor’s health condition or payment. For unauthenticated scenarios, if it’s known the visitor is seeking personal healthcare, the data may be PHI. The ruling doesn’t address authenticated web pages, meaning PHI will still be generated in many cases. Organizations must be cautious about collecting and handling PHI, especially regarding analytics. Controlling data sent to various platforms is crucial for HIPAA compliance. This involves sending consented PHI to vendors who sign BAAs (like Amplitude or Adobe) and anonymized data to those who don’t (like Google Analytics 4). Flexibility in data distribution across analytics platforms is essential.
Patient Experience Nuances for the Modern Healthcare Leader
Nirmal Vemanna: We’ve discussed how personalization is crucial for healthcare organizations’ evolution in customer service. What, in your view, constitutes a modern approach to consumer personalization in healthcare?
Richard Morrow: Broadly, the goal is improving patient experiences and outcomes for healthcare organizations. Starting with zero-party data, organizations can ask questions to guide users effectively. For instance, identifying someone as a caregiver can change their experience and tracking. This helps delight users by assisting them in finding services or answers.
As users progress, first-party data creates a stronger bond. By collecting pertinent information, we can deliver enhanced experiences. This is where technologies work together, creating a unified 360-degree view. Every touchpoint becomes personalized, reducing unnecessary questions in future interactions.
The power of these data points, combined with MarTech and other technologies, creates an infrastructure to deliver on promises. This enables real-time reactions as engagement increases, ideally leading to better consumer outcomes.
Nirmal Vemanna: Zero-party data, voluntarily provided by patients about their visit, is crucial for both future engagement and privacy reasons. It’s a great incentive to create personalized patient experiences where patients feel heard, encouraging them to share more data. This creates a virtuous cycle.
Zero-party data is a great incentive to create personalized patient experiences where patients feel heard, encouraging them to share more data.
A real-time CDP is critical for technical infrastructure. It should interface with internal systems like EHR, CRM, and MDM, acting as a conduit to gather and interpret patient data on the fly. This enables relevant content and experiences across touchpoints like websites, apps, and call centers in real-time.
Why show generic content when you know a patient’s preferences and treatment journey? Why make patients navigate multiple departments when calling, if you can identify them instantly and direct them appropriately? This is what a CDP and the right technology ecosystem can achieve, saving time and improving patient experience.
For physician engagement, rich third-party data sets are available, unlike patient engagement where first-party data is safer. These can reveal physicians’ research, preferences, and referral motivations. Tealium partners with healthcare-specific identity providers. Combining these with a real-time CDP allows identification of physicians visiting your website, enabling personalized patient experiences based on their history and pain points. This approach can improve physician engagement and conversion rates, complementing patient engagement strategies.
Data Strategies and Improved Patient Experience: Case in Point
Nirmal Vemanna: How does all of this apply in practice? Can you share any real-world customer success stories?
Joe Christopher: We have a case study with a healthcare insurance provider client. We developed a customer experience strategy to reduce member friction that often led to costly call center interactions. By making digital self-help options more accessible, our experiment yielded positive results. The simple changes projected annual savings of nearly $200,000. This type of experimentation can lead to significant improvements in customer experience and cost efficiency.
Nirmal Vemanna: It’s amazing how small changes can have such a big impact. That demonstrates the power of digital personalization and real-time engagement. Thanks for sharing that great example.
Chart Your Organization’s Path Toward Superior Patient Experiences
Modern healthcare leaders understand that data is a means to a better patient experience. They will protect patient data at every turn without shying away from the potential it has to create consumer-like patient experiences that delight patients and engender trust and loyalty with the healthcare organization. The right healthcare data strategy looks at every data use and nuance. It creates a scalable and adaptable system that keeps patient data safe while advancing the experiences patients have when engaging with the healthcare organization across different channels, modalities, and care settings.
Want to dig deeper into the specific needs of your healthcare organization? Need to figure out your best path forward for a data strategy that creates superior, personalized patient experiences? BlastX is here to help. It all starts with a conversation. Talk to one of our healthcare MarTech consultants and start or continue your journey towards a better data strategy that protects patient privacy and provides a better patient experience.
