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Using Expert Networks for Digital Commercialization in Healthcare

In December 2021, our Insights colleagues came to Expert with a research need for a client — a trusted health insurance provider. This client is known for having a top-rated broker portal and wanted to determine if there was the potential to commercialize the portal. The target was believed to be small to medium-sized payers. To learn more about the potential of digital commercialization in the healthcare space we targeted the following methodology: Five in-depth interviews of 45-60 minutes each, which would blend insights from subject matter experts and brokers. Topics included healthcare mobilization, marketplace trends, patient access, and numerous other related fields.

What We Did

To find and screen thought leaders in healthcare who could meet this crossroads of needs, Expert by Big Village wasted no time in effective delivery. Across the massive spectrum of healthcare, our specific subtopics for expert recruiting included brokerage, digital spaces, commercialization, insurance, consumer preferences, healthcare products, usage, and data. We also hunted for consultants in marketing, technology development, and omnichannel support. We marshaled multiple tools for combining searches carefully and quickly, then personally screened dozens of CTO’s, Heads of Strategy, Senior Directors, researchers, digital transformation consultants, fintech innovators, and similarly qualified leads who overlapped significant healthcare leadership with an insurance focus.

In step with our standard offering, Expert by Big Village’s deliverable to our client included scoping together, screening each expert, scheduling each interview, joining each IDI to ensure access, anonymizing our client, recording each consultation (with interviewee prior consent), providing the transcript of each interview to our client, and handling payments and contracts for every expert interviewed. The process — and the results — were strengthened by the Expert by Big Village personal touch, attentiveness, and frequent updates on interview progress and scheduling.

The Result

We met our target by brokering 5 confidential interviews — one member of Expert by Big Village’s extensive network, and four custom-recruited SME’s — regarding digital commercialization in the healthcare space. Specific discussion topics included healthcare payer and providers’ data gathering methodologies, marketing practicing and materials, plan comparison, patient enrollment, patient onboarding, and business renewal. Each interview explored key questions: What is the role of new digital platforms in the current broker landscape? How does digital support promote or inhibit user access? How has the broker journey evolved over time, especially with regard to these digital tools?