This post was created in partnership with PulsePoint
AI and digital search are fundamentally changing the patient journey. Before a patient even sees a doctor, they have often encountered a mountain of health information that can be as helpful as it is confusing. When what they find online conflicts with what a clinician says in person, credibility begins to erode.
During an ADWEEK House panel co-hosted with PulsePoint, industry leaders discussed how to align healthcare and marketing teams around a shared story. The goal is to build a cohesive ecosystem where patient and provider experiences are synchronized across every touchpoint.
The chaos of the health journey
Konrad Gerszke, CEO of PulsePoint, set the stage by describing the often-contradictory experience of a patient in the digital age. He noted that the disconnect between online search and clinical advice can actually lead to worse health outcomes.
“If you are a patient, oftentimes you research a health condition for yourself or a relative before you go to the doctor,” Gerszke said. “You are exposed to search results and what creators or influencers are telling you. You probably also chat with an AI, and you are looking at YouTube videos. Then you are going to the doctor, and the doctor is saying something completely different in the 35 seconds he has with you.”
The disconnect between a doctor’s diagnosis and fragmented online information leads to confusion and ultimately erodes trust in online healthcare content and marketing, he said. This disconnect can also “lead to worse health outcomes, adherence problems, and treatment problems,” Gerszke explained.
Moving toward discovery
Andrea Palmer, CEO of Publicis Health Media, suggested that brands should view this fragmented environment not as a hurdle, but as a tool for connecting with patients when they are most active. She described the patient experience as a perpetual state of seeking answers.
“People are on this never-ending journey of discovery, and they’re using the media as a discovery tool,” Palmer explained. For marketers, their job is “to connect those dots” from different media sources.
As technology evolves, the way patients ask questions is changing. According to Gerske, when doctors or patients use traditional search, they tend to enter just two or three words. In an AI-powered chat, that expands to roughly six to eight words. It may seem like a small shift, but it represents a significant jump in how clearly their intent is expressed and understood. More importantly, AI-supported chats tend to include additional language and context, which can lead to better answers and ultimately better healthcare outcomes.
Authenticity in a scaled world
While data and automation are critical for efficiency, they cannot replace the core of health marketing. Jason Young, VP of integrated marketing at Novartis, emphasized that the ultimate goal is to use technology to create space for more meaningful human interactions.
