Populus Report Redefines Virtual Care as Interconnected Ecosystem Ripe for Engagement

In contrast to a common view across the healthcare industry of virtual care as a fragmented collection of separate digital experiences, a new report finds that patients see it as a single, unified category—and that pharma marketers would do well to treat it as such. 

The “Virtual Care in America” report, released in full last Thursday by Populus Health Technologies, draws on interviews and surveys of more than 1,000 patients, 125 healthcare professionals and 63 pharma marketers.  

The conversations showed that patients are increasingly choosing virtual over in-person care out of convenience and that, with that growing familiarity, they categorize a wide range of digital touchpoints, including video, phone, text, email and online portals, all under the virtual care umbrella.  

With that in mind, per the report, pharma media should focus on building one cohesive strategy spanning the entire digital patient journey, rather than addressing each channel as its own category. In practice, that would mean targeting moments—like before and during a visit, when attention is particularly high, and after a visit, when ongoing support is needed—instead of individual channels.  

In promising news for pharma marketers, the surveys found that both patients and HCPs are open to brands’ messages throughout the virtual care ecosystem. Nearly half of patients said they’d be open to receiving health information or educational content while waiting for an appointment, and almost three-quarters said patient support program enrollment would be “very” or “extremely” valuable during or after a virtual visit. 

Meanwhile, more than half of the surveyed HCPs agreed that pharma presence within virtual care is acceptable or helpful, though even more (57%) said that they rarely or never encounter any brand messaging in those digital settings. 

In addition to capturing engagement, taking the report’s prescribed unified approach to virtual care marketing could also help to define boundaries for outcomes measurement. In terms of those outcomes, nearly 80% of the surveyed marketers said virtual care offers “better” or “much better” return on investment compared to traditional digital health advertising. About the same number said virtual care accelerates treatment initiation, while 48% agreed that it offers better attribution than other digital channels. 

solli’s Final Thoughts 

Virtual care may have seen its popularity skyrocket during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s proven to have sticking power in the years since. Patients are increasingly relying on digital avenues to access care, while HCPs are growing more and more comfortable with connecting with patients virtually. 

Throughout that evolution, pharma media has largely addressed each piece of the virtual care puzzle as a separate entity with its own designated strategy and metrics. But as digital care experiences become the norm rather than a one-off—and as patients and HCPs alike remain open to brand messaging within those experiences—it makes sense for marketers to take a more all-encompassing view of the category, mirroring the way that individuals see virtual health. 

Ideally, that’ll result not only in greater efficiency across strategy and measurement, but also in more meaningful engagement as brands reach patients and clinicians at the right place and right time, with the right materials to support where they are in the care journey.