What you might want to know:

– Zocdoc, a healthcare market that connects sufferers with healthcare suppliers, has its second annual “What sufferers need: 2024 Insights into affected person preferences and conduct' report, which gives helpful insights into affected person preferences and conduct in 2024.

– The report analyzes hundreds of thousands of interactions on the Zocdoc platform to establish the important thing developments shaping the healthcare panorama.

The affect of social media on healthcare

The report highlights the rising affect of social media on healthcare developments, with notable will increase in bookings for:

• Semaglutide Consultations: Most likely pushed by discussions about GLP-1 weight reduction medication.
• Sleep medication specialists: Presumably influenced by the recognition of 'sleepy lady mocktails' on social media.
• Appointments for jaw ache: Presumably associated to the “meow” development circulating on-line.
• Blue gentle remedy: Elevated curiosity on this therapy amongst girls.
• Veneer: Rising demand for beauty dental procedures.

Private care nonetheless dominates

Regardless of the rise of telehealth, in-person care stays the popular choice for many sufferers. Solely 12% of appointments booked in 2024 have been digital, with psychological well being companies being the exception (79% of psychiatric bookings have been digital).

Affected person demographics and reserving developments

• Girls make up the vast majority of Zocdoc customers and account for two-thirds of bookings.
• Millennials signify the most important age group and make up nearly half of all bookings.
• Cell bookings dominate, particularly for pressing care, psychological well being and first care.

Key elements influencing affected person decisions

• Insurance coverage: Most sufferers prioritize in-network suppliers, with almost 9 out of 10 bookings for insurance coverage protection.
• Pace ​​to care: Sufferers worth fast entry to care, with a 3rd of appointments going down inside 48 hours of reserving.
• Gender supplier: Feminine sufferers predominantly select feminine healthcare suppliers, whereas male sufferers present a extra even distribution.
• Visible enchantment: Suppliers with workplace images on their profiles obtain considerably extra bookings.
• Multilingual choices: Suppliers who supply a number of languages ​​appeal to extra bookings.
• Evaluations: Optimistic opinions have a big influence on affected person decisions, with suppliers with extra opinions receiving exponentially extra bookings.

High specialties and causes for visiting

• Preventive healthcare and pores and skin well being lead the bookings, adopted by psychological well being and dental care.
• Emergency care, dermatology and psychiatry are the quickest rising specialties.
• Essentially the most booked specialists embrace basic practitioners, dermatologists and gynecologists.
• The commonest causes for visits embrace chilly signs, eyelid issues, and toothaches.

Appointment timing and preferences

• The busiest reserving day is often the primary non-holiday weekday of the brand new yr.
• The busiest appointment day and week often falls in September, which coincides with back-to-school season.
• Almost half of all appointments are booked outdoors enterprise hours, underscoring the demand for handy scheduling choices.
• The most well-liked occasions for appointments are late morning and early afternoon.
• Mondays and the start of the week are the most well-liked days for appointments.

Affected person empowerment and predictions for 2025

The Zocdoc Affected person Empowerment Index reveals a slight lower in sufferers' management over their healthcare expertise. Nonetheless, Zocdoc's CEO predicts higher affected person consolation with AI options, extra experimentation with cash-paid companies, and broader adoption of economic GLP-1 medication by 2025.

“Given the breadth and depth of companies sufferers e-book via Zocdoc nationwide, we now have unparalleled insights into Individuals' healthcare decisions and priorities,” mentioned Oliver Kharraz, MD, founder and CEO of Zocdoc. “With this report, we’re proud to amplify affected person voices and decisions to make clear what issues most relating to their care.”