Patients of the future will demand increased communication, be more informed consumers

In the future, healthcare providers can expect more informed patients who want their care team members to be more open to communicating via e-mail and other Internet platforms. They will also be more knowledgeable about potential treatment options, their own health records, and want to know upfront about the costs that will be incurred with medical care. According to this new HealthLeaders Media article, patients of the future will be more savvy, informed customers.

My colleague Gienna Shaw addresses some of the reasons why many of these attributes, some that patients exhibit today, are going to become commonplace in the future. Using technology to communicate with patients will be a must as a new generation of patients who communicate through e-mail, text, and instant message will expect their physicians to do the same. Those same patients will be accessing their own personal health records as more hospitals and insurance companies provide them, putting them more in touch with their plan of care. These expectations, along with other developments, will put caregivers and patients in more of a partnership.

Check out her article for some more thoughts on what tomorrow’s (or next year’s or decade’s) patients will look like. Do you agree with these points? What do you think patients of the future will expect from their healthcare?