Transforming European patient outcomes and experience through digital insight and regulatory foresight
Forces shaping the future of patient experience
European healthcare is poised for a pivotal shift to reduce societal burden while striving for outcomes-driven, seamless patient experience in an increasingly hybrid physical-digital world.
Beyond the need to achieve sustainable health systems and reduce costs, the acceleration of this shift is driven by three forces: evolving patient expectations shaped by consumer AI and digital experiences; rapid evolution of policies and regulations like the European Health Data Space; and technologies that don’t just connect but enrich each other, creating powerful, integrated ecosystems.
We’re entering an era where technologies don’t just connect—they enrich each other, forming intelligent ecosystems that unlock clinical-grade AI for organisations of all sizes. AI-driven tools now offer scalable solutions that enable personalised care pathways, predictive analytics, and real-time decision support at scale.
Deloitte European patient engagement pulse survey
In this context Deloitte conducted a European patient research to get a snapshot of patient experience and expectations. Patients are clearly demanding trust and personalised care that blends digital convenience with human empathy. Regulators are raising the bar, rewarding those who navigate complexity with agility.
Yet, entrenched orthodoxies persist—treating patient data as proprietary assets, assuming patient centricity means simply following preferences, or viewing patient support as a discrete, post-approval activity. These outdated beliefs risk limiting innovation and patient value.
We identified seven key beliefs to challenge in shaping digital health’s future:
To explore the challenge and way forward with each belief, download the full report.
The implications
Addressing these orthodoxies highlight the shifts organisations must embrace to realise the full promise of interoperable data and digital health for patients and society.
Challenging historic ways of working and industry boundaries opens new strategic possibilities for a digitally enabled healthcare future where outcomes, trust, and ecosystem value determine competitive success.
Organisations that will drive advances and reap the benefits are those willing to challenge orthodoxies by adopting journey-centric over product-centric design, embracing ecosystem partnerships, leveraging data for shared value, and using regulatory expertise as a strategic advantage.
Your next steps
Above all, patient experiences must focus on delivering trusted and measurable outcomes by combining clinical rigor with consumer-grade expectations.
At Deloitte, our Life Sciences and Healthcare team has developed proven methodologies to help organisations navigate this complex landscape. For example, our HEAL framework combines Deloitte’s deep European healthcare expertise with systematic investment approaches, enabling companies to make confident decisions about where, when, and how to deploy digital patient support capabilities.
Ready to transform your patient strategy for the AI age? Contact our team to discover how strategic digital transformation can drive both patient outcomes and business growth across Europe’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.
Contributors
We thank Andreas Mueller, Executive Advisor; Vincenzo Capozzoli, Director, Life Sciences & Health Care; Arun Singh, Director, Technology and Strategy; and Ines Galvez de Esteban, Customer Strategy Consultant, for their contributions to this article.
