Q1 is in the books. Alexa is HIPAA-compliant, the Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-J.P. Morgan (ABJ) alliance now has a name — Haven — and the much-anticipated industrywide interoperability efforts got a huge boost with CMS’s proposed policy changes announced at the HIMSS conference.

In the parlance of Bob Dylan . . . the times they are a-changin’.

Back in November of 2018, an army of Forrester analysts made a series of bold predictions for 2019 across a multitude of different industries and sectors. Specific to healthcare, we’re already seeing growing activity primarily across three of our five predictions:

  1. Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are abandoning traditional feedback methods for CX measurement frameworks. Forrester has seen an uptick among large healthcare clients readdressing, restructuring, and reimagining their feedback methods. Clients are seeking guidance on how to shift from a foundational voice-of-the-customer (VoC) program to one that is state of the art and embedded in their digital innovation strategy. Anecdotally, more health insurance and healthcare provider clients are exploring the benefits of text analytics to support sentiment analysis in their contact centers, ensuring that they are uncovering the full needs of the customer, not just what is provided on a survey.
  1. Data fatigue has set in as firms search for “signals in the noise.” At HIMSS19, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released proposed rules requiring health insurers working with Medicare and Medicaid to share claims with providers and personal health records with patients by 2020. The deluge of data is coming, further fueling the need for analytics to transform data into insights. According to Forrester Analytics’ Global Business Technographics® data, 60% of purchase influencers globally are increasing or adopting new investment in enterprise health clouds (EHCs) to prepare for the coming data storm.
  1. AI is affecting two out of three US patients — and most patients don’t even know. AI has found a place as an invisible, accepted component that automates tedious tasks and delivers valuable insights. HIMSS19 confirmed that AI is spreading its influence without patients even knowing. Electronic health record (EHR) vendors are embracing partnerships to build AI capabilities into workflows, which streamlines care behind the scenes. Moreover, popular consumer-facing touchpoints, like Alexa, have established a HIPAA-compliant environment for developers. This will open the floodgates for HCOs to introduce new Alexa Skills that provide value to patients in the areas of medication adherence and data sharing, among others (all buoyed by machine learning) — with these interactions driven by conversational AI.

This quarter was a perfect setup for the remainder of the year: packed with announcements and advancements. Our recently published trends reports for healthcare insurers and healthcare providers offer prescriptive advice for how to respond to our 2019 predictions.

If you haven’t already, check out Forrester’s 2019 healthcare predictions to check out all five predictions. Forrester clients, reach out via inquiry to further discuss the outlook for 2019 and beyond.