GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers
By now you know that things in the medical commerce world are rapidly changing:
- Patients are now referred to as customers and health professionals are providers
- Online medicine is growing much like online commerce
- The retail apocalypse continues and hospitals are consolidating or closing
- Sick care sales and marketing is evolving to engage and educate patient customers
- The buying experience and convenience has taken precedence over quality as a differentiator for medical facilities and clinicians
- Price transparency is growing
- Online communities of patients with similar medical problems are everpresent
- The digital ecosystem economy is evolving towards creating a whole product solution
- Financial technologies are making it easier and more convenient to pay for sickcare products and services
- Healthcare professionals are being trained and held accountable for patient customer service
- The Consumer Electronics Show and the JP Morgan conference now gets more press coverage than the most medical meetings
- Amedzon, Walmart and media companies are the new new sickcare things
Consequently, don’t be surprised when you see a medical department store move into that empty mall down the road from your house. The department store transformed America. Now some of the very forces that fueled its rise have been turned against it. The only way out may be for it to recapture something of its past.-making it an experience for a community.
Medical department stores will offer many different departments:
- Wearables
- Clothing with sensors
- Telemedicine appliances and medical devices and other durable medical equipment
- Patient and care circle education centers
- A service department
- A medical geek squad
- DIY medicine departments with kiosks
- Patient and care navigators to help you connect to social service agencies to address the social determinants of heath outcomes
- Data navigators to help you make sense of all that data you are generating every day
- Health, data and insurance IQ literacy resource centers
- Smart home furnishings and bathroon accessories
- Healthy food delivery services, kitchen appliances and cooking classes
Another benefit of all this one stop shopping will the food court (think Harrods) with a healthy food farmacy and several bars where you can join your friends to avoid social isolation and loneliness. Fill out the form on our app to receive sales promotions and coupons and check out our low, low prices if you missed Black Friday.
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