A look at the future: Healthcare interventions in retail

In the Netherlands, we are not yet accustomed to it, but in the United States and England, it is already quite normal to walk into the pharmacy or drugstore for various forms of minor medical services, such as a BMI measurement, a blood pressure determination, a cholesterol check, or a saturation measurement.

"In the Netherlands, we are good at making healthcare a little bit faster, better, or cheaper," says healthcare innovator and strategist Lucien Engelen. "But that's not going to cut it, given the major problems that healthcare is currently facing. In Roermond, we discussed this with many involved parties and we came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to investigate whether we could implement the approach that has been common in those two countries in the Netherlands for a long time."

This led to a six-month pilot in which this idea of the one-stop shop for medical services in a shop in the heart of Roermond shopping was tried. Open to shoppers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. And on Monday and Friday, the policy parties, departments and health insurers involved met to look at it, evaluate it and determine the next steps.

"The first next step is to go to the focus districts of Roermond," Engelen continues. "So it's a different population. And then to an outlet mall where many visitors also come from Belgium and Germany. Then we have a valuable cross-section of the people for whom this approach can be interesting."

Reducing inflow

Helen Mertens, Chair of the Board of Maastricht UMC+, was immediately charmed by the idea. "In view of all the challenges in healthcare, I immediately found it very inspiring," she says. "It brings much more control to the citizens. They come to the mall and they are curious about their health data. Just look at the amount of people who wear wearables, such as a smartwatch."

In addition, according to Mertens, healthcare is overflowing because many questions that are asked in healthcare are actually other types of requests for help. "Everyone goes to the doctor. If it becomes clear in the one-stop shop that the results are good, this can contribute to a reduced influx into healthcare. In addition, it can motivate people to eat healthier for example, or to exercise more if they see from the results that there is reason to do so. It also suits us as a knowledge institute to want to know more about this approach and to actively contribute to and develop it through our own Healthcare Innovation Lab."

Deloitte also shares this vision. "Healthcare-in-retail could be an important part of the answer to the problem of reducing the pressure on healthcare," says Maurice Fransen, partner at Deloitte. "Because the consumer willingness to use such a one-stop shop is an important determinant of its possible success, we decided to map this out through consumer research."

Enthusiasm

This was followed by a large-scale consumer survey in fifteen European countries with 16,000 respondents, the results of which are now contained in the report One-stop shop: where healthcare meets retail. The results of the study were encouraging, Fransen says. "The enthusiasm for the idea was somewhat greater in England than in the Netherlands. This is understandable, because the English healthcare system is already under more pressure than ours. But the expectation is that the same will happen in the Netherlands, so we have to look for alternatives in time. People found the pharmacy or chemist the most appealing, because these two retailers are already closest to healthcare."

Like Fransen, Engelen is convinced that the one-stop shop concept will also become commonplace in the Netherlands. "We're going to see this everywhere in the Netherlands in five years' time," he says. "The self-measurement kiosk where patients can measure vital signs themselves in the hospital prior to a consultation, will also be seen primarily outside the hospital. The challenge now is to translate what is already commonplace in the US and the UK to the Dutch context. My dream is to connect healthcare and retail in vocational and higher professional education. There's a real opportunity in that."

Mertens sees it as a threefold challenge: educating people, including citizens in the story and putting professionalism behind the one-stop shop for when something abnormal is found in the measurements that people can take there. "As far as training is concerned, it is important to start as young as possible," she says. "The old regeneration still just wants to go to the doctor. The young people are not going to sit in the waiting room. They are used to a much faster and non-location-specific approach. But if you start with the younger generation, the rest will follow."

Social component

A recent event strengthens Engelen's conviction that the idea can be of value to all generations. "During a partner meeting in Roermond recently, an elderly lady stepped in to have her blood pressure measured. We were talking about cold care and hot care and she joined the conversation. She said that she not only wants that measurement, but also a conversation about how she is doing. So the social side. I thought that was wonderful. And if you are going to scale up the idea of the one-stop-shop to the neighbourhood, it becomes really important. We also see this at the self-measurement kiosk that we already have in various places. At the first kiosk in the Laurentius Hospital Roermond, we had three volunteers for an explanation. Now there is only one left at such a kiosk. And really not for explanation, but for the social aspect. Seen from this perspective, such a kiosk would not be out of place in an elderly centre or community centre."

Mertens is already convinced of the practical value of the self-measuring kiosk. "We've already done trials with it in our hospital and have now decided to buy three," she says. It saves time in the consulting room if the patient can immediately tell whether the blood pressure is good or not when they come in."

Interesting phase

Fransen sees a lot of potential value in the one-stop shop if it is widely available. He emphasises two important aspects: "It increases people's awareness of their own health. And if they start acting accordingly, it also relieves the burden on healthcare."

What needs to happen now, says Engelen, is that healthcare must become aware of what is happening in retail. "So go to a conference outside your field to hear how they serve their customers there and work on customer-friendliness.

And vice versa, retail should do exactly the same. We are also going to organise that cross-sector get-together soon. This is the moment, because you can already see the fear of missing out: if I don't offer it, someone else will and I'm at a disadvantage. An interesting phase. "And a phase that will definitely be continued in wider availability of the one-stop shop idea of where healthcare meets retail: Mertens, Fransen and Engelen are absolutely convinced of that. " We are now seeing an exponential growth in certified technological developments," says the latter. "It's going to be a lot of work in the next few years. Just look at the arrival of the world's first automatic blood prick robot." Fransen concludes: "And there is much more to come. Next year, technology will be so many advances in the world that there will be new possibilities that we can't even imagine yet. This is really an irreversible development."

This article was previously published in the October 2023 issue of ICT&Health.