What will the Healthcare Insights world look like in 2030?

2010s is over and the past decade brought incredible changes for market researchers working in healthcare: rise of new digital technologies and AI, less bias with real-world patient experience, in-depth behaviours understanding, faster and more actionable results presented in a story-telling mode… Innovation is at the heart of healthcare research. The 2020s will surely be characterized by the same excitement but also probably by some fears.

I asked 8 insight leaders (from research agencies or consultants…) what most excites them or questions them about what will come between now and 2030.

Ana Perez, Customer Strategy & Insights Consultant,

« We often find ourselves thinking “life moves way too fast” and we wish it could just slow down. When it comes to healthcare, this thought flips wishing healthcare could move even faster with the purpose of finding cure to fatal diseases, getting early diagnosis or finding the best treatment tailored to patients. By 2030 this could be possible, at least for some of the most devastating diseases (i.e. Cancer, Diabetes, etc). The continuous and rapid evolvement of gene & stem cell therapies, immune therapies and bionics would contribute to this relentless search for a significant healthcare shift.

Although, the key for these developments to work effectively and efficiently would be the smart use of DATA and INSIGHTS generated from it. Hence, the importance of Insights roles within the healthcare industry to preserve and evolve utilising artificial intelligence as key channel for precision.

Artificial intelligence will allow to generate larger sources of insights minimizing the routine work and focus on strategic analysis. This will unlock limitless opportunities for the patients underpinning the best application of the abovementioned therapies. As expected, the robust integration of these technologies to generate valuable insights would potentially result on a considerable investment. At least, at first sight, this could be the perception of key stakeholders. Although on the long term, the macroeconomic impact of having healthier citizens would well pay off.

Insights professionals together with Payers must proof this benefit to allow full and broad accessibility to these technologies across therapy areas. Partnerships with tech industry biggest players, government grants, tax allowances and partnerships amongst pharmaceuticals would contribute to pull the trigger for the most wanted “way too fast” moving decade in healthcare. »

Hannah Mann – Founding Partner, Day One 

« I am excited about doing things differently and to change the way we work. I think in the future research will be much less labour intensive and we will spend considerably less time gathering data and relatively much more time thinking about what it means. This should hopefully raise the importance of research as it becomes cheaper, faster and more strategic in nature.

I also look forward to the day when research is no longer dominated by the standard question and answer format but much more natural and free flowing. We will have access to people in multiple ways so they can report their experiences when it is relevant, rather than just when they have been asked ».

Katy Irving – Global Head of Behavioural Science, HRW

« What excites me: Explosion of behavioural science. We’re on a huge wave of increasing application of and interest in behavioural economics and psychology in research. The growth in this sector, collaboration across academic disciplines, and sophistication of new methods coming through is driving ever more understanding and application of experimental methods.

Soumya Roy, Ph.D. CEO, Basis Health

« There are two exciting technology-induced developments that stand to dramatically change healthcare marketing and how we conduct market research.

• First, we will see healthcare marketers focusing their efforts on not just new medications but also “experiential therapies” that are paired with medications to drive better health outcomes. These will include technologies available today, such as apps (e.g. to manage dietary restrictions) and wearable devices (e.g., to alert irregular heart rates), as well as new innovations, such as chip implants (to monitor insulin levels) or virtual reality (to manage mental heath conditions).

For us insight-junkies, this will greatly advance our understanding of the patient experience, including by measuring the effect that behavioral ‘nudges’ have on that experience.

• By incorporating these new technologies in our repertoire of research tools through the lens of behavioral economics and neurosciences, we will gain new and comprehensive insights into human emotions and generate new research techniques.
• Second, we will see a greater shift to digital marketing and digital engagement for patients and HCPs. New technologies will have tremendous impact on who we speak to (from Key Opinion Leaders to Key Opinion Influencers), what we measure (from paid advertising to earned media), metrics we use (from brand equity to brand energy and social ‘virality’), and how fast we generate results (ideally within minutes of a social/ digital media exposure). »

Dr Andrée Bates- CEO, Eularis

« AI is already changing pharma market research in many ways and this will continue. At the moment most of the use is in data collection and analysis – both of which will become more automated and instant.

Already we are analyzing social media data more and more using NLP and ML text analytics for market research. With the ongoing constant increase in everyone’s digital footprint, this kind of big data monitoring from internet and social media and IOT will largely replace quant market research as more and more big data sources and insights into HCP and patient behaviour start to get accessed and collated (with consent of course). Use of chat bots to automatically analyze and access insights within large amounts of research data will continue to grow in use and largely dominate market research of the future. When qual is needed it will be done via VR and AR and focus group real rooms will be a thing of the past -as will moderators who will no doubt be sophisticated chatbotsAs we look further ahead, when we consider that it is already possible for multiple intelligent actions to be performed on a computer from moving one muscle, just as Stephen Hawking did. Hawking achieved the feat of writing emails, browsing the internet, writing books and speaking using only one muscle.

When we consider that, alongside what Neurolink and others are working on with embedding chips into humans, we could potentially even see market researchers being able to automatically download and identify thoughts and preferences and other aspects of what they are investigating without any further data collection. However, that is still quite a long way off where we are today. »

Reena Sangar, Global Head of Digital and Connected Health, Ipsos

« The future of Healthcare research will look multi-source (integration of primary, with secondary, and real world data sets), powered by A.I/M.L (where experts from across disciplines, therapy areas, create meaningful algorithms among diverse groups) and shared through the power of storytelling (authentic experience, visual, short and business focussed).

The role of artificial intelligence in research is two fold. It will improve our process (narrow AI) through better automation, quality checks and sense checking data integration. But also, it will enhance our storytelling With the promise of A.I being predictive, it will enable us to pierce together a much stronger story and greater real world contextualization.

“With this will come a new world of MR, and new jobs in MR, which need to do a better job of curation, data integrity checking (in all this noise what do we trust?) and design, making our stories beautiful and authentic through visuals and videos. »

Agathe Acchiardo, Director, Think Next

« There are mostly two things that I find exciting when I think about the next decade for market research in the healthcare industry – or at least, I’m curious to see how they will turn out.

• First, and looking on a trend unfolding right now, I’m excited to see more and more healthcare companies taking a broader view on the patient-centricity buzz word, and starting to involve what has been for too long ‘the invisible army’ – the unpaid caregivers, family members or friends, who help patients on a daily basis, and who might provide unique insights into patients’ pain points. Caregivers have long been an overlooked group of stakeholders, but their daily involvement, the support they provide, and their own struggles often have a direct impact on patients’ wellbeing. So I’m glad to see their voice now being reflected into market research plans.
• Second, and this may be a longer-term trend, I am really curious to see how virtual reality will be applied in healthcare market research – I have no doubt that it will be at one point between now and 2030. I’ve seen a great presentation on a VR simulation developed to better understand physicians’ reactions and behaviours when pressured by a (virtual) patient to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics, and the results were very striking. The unique power of immersion of VR can help get a grasp of HCPs’ or patients’ (re)actions in complex situations that cannot be observed in real life settings due to ethical or practical reasons – and with the benefit of virtual conditions that are 100% identical from one respondent to another.

So I’m looking forward to see how VR will be leveraged to uncover surprising, unsettling, or thought-provoking insights in healthcare. »

Andrew Grenville, Chief Research Officer of Maru/Matchbox

« By 2030, the once insular, slow moving and survey-driven world of healthcare insights will have been transformed. In its place will be an omnivorous, source agnostic insight-driven strategic resource that leads rather than follows. This transformation will require new skill sets, new information sources and fresh approaches to analysis. That will cause some turmoil, but the coming decade will see the function either transformed or left behind.

Richer behavioral data, AI and DIY tools will fill in many of the holes in our current understanding, enabling researchers to focus more on synthesis and strategy. What and who will no longer be a question. The focus will be firmly fixed on how and why.

A deeper recognition of the problem of heuristics and biases in analysis will lead to workflows that incorporate greater teamwork and peer review—one of the few successful tools for detecting blind spots and defusing biases. A larger focus on teamwork in analysis will also result in deeper insights, as people share fresh perspectives and learnings from other categories and backgrounds.

When we look back from 2030, we’ll shake our heads at how blinkered and trepidatious we were in 2020 and reflect on how exciting it is to look ahead to 2040. »

To sum-up, let me first thanks again these 8 leaders for their “predictions”.

It seems quite consensual that AI & Behavioral Science will change dramatically how we get insights. AI could be perceived as a threat sometimes (data privacy, loss of jobs…). However it will make research and insights quicker and easier with less repetitive roles. It will help to find smarter ways of reaching niche audiences. No doubt that there will still be a huge need for the human eye, to translate cultural nuances of what people say and what they actually mean.

Fascinating period ahead of us, where Market Research will definitively have a seat at the top-table and contribute as a key company’s intelligence capital.

Main Author Philippe Thiéry- Founder at C4I Consulting