The Vital Role of Market Intelligence in Leveraging NLP in Healthcare

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a machine learning model that has emerged as a game-changer, transforming the way companies interact with customers and handle vast amounts of data. NLP tools are increasingly adopted in all industries to automate time-consuming processes and make them more efficient.

In healthcare, NLP plays a crucial role in streamlining processes, enhancing patient care, and improving overall operational efficiency.

An interesting case of a discovery made through NLP in healthcare is finding an adverse reaction of cancer drugs that has been missed by physicians for more than 11 years. In 2018, a group of scientists used NLP to analyze 8 million posts from cancer patients on online forums. The study found “loss of sweating” as a drug adverse reaction that has been reported by patients on online forums for more than 11 years, yet never mentioned or reported by physicians.

This case, and others where NLP made healthcare much more efficient, have brought more attention and demand to NLP solutions in the healthcare industry. It is of no wonder then that the global NLP in Healthcare and Life Sciences market size (based on investments in NLP solutions) is expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2025, rising at a CAGR of 20.5% (2020-2025).

However, before implementing NLP solutions, companies should first do market research to know how customers respond to applications of NLP in products/services.

In this blog post, we explore how market intelligence contributes to a successful implementation of NLP in healthcare.

What is Natural Language Processing?

Natural language Processing (NLP) is a machine learning model that enables algorithms to understand and process human speech. It’s “natural” because it doesn’t require humans to change how they communicate. In healthcare, NLP has revolutionizing roles such as:

• ‍Electronic Health Records (EHR)
  NLP algorithms extract information from unstructured data, such as doctors' notes or pathology reports, and transcribe it into structured formats. This transforms clinical documentation into electronic health records, which saves time, improves accuracy, and reduces errors.
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• ‍Real-time Data Analysis
  By analyzing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, NLP systems enable healthcare organizations to extract valuable insights and trends in real-time. These analyses can drive evidence-based decision-making, enhance patient outcomes, and optimize resource allocation.
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• ‍Improving patient health awareness
  NLP can analyze patient-generated data, such as online health forums and social media posts, to gain insights into patient experiences, sentiments, and preferences, enabling personalized care.
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• ‍Simplified Patient Communication
  NLP-powered chatbots can facilitate patient engagement by serving as virtual assistants that provide personalized responses, appointment scheduling, medication reminders, and general health advice. This enables patients to access information promptly and improve their experience while reducing costs associated with administrative tasks.
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• Conducting Predictive Analytics
  NLP algorithms can analyze historical patient data and identify patterns to predict disease progression, hospital readmissions, and treatment outcomes. This can maximize proactive care and resource allocation.
  

Although NLP plays a transformative role in healthcare, it has to be coupled with market intelligence that allows you to harness your opportunities and make informed strategic decisions.

How does Market Intelligence Maximize your Benefit from NLP?

It is crucial for companies to evaluate the technological and financial feasibility of NLP before committing to a particular solution. Market research helps organizations understand the alignment of NLP technology with their business goals and assigned budgets. Assessing the capabilities and limitations of different NLP solutions allows companies to make informed decisions that amplify their chances of long-term success.

Here's how market intelligence supports your NLP integration:

• ‍Assessing Market Readiness for NLP Solutions
  ‍Effective market intelligence helps identify the maturity level and adoption rates of NLP-based applications in the healthcare sector. Understanding market readiness allows organizations to feasibly implement and integrate NLP systems while evaluating potential risks and benefits.
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• ‍Evaluating Competitors and Benchmarking
  Before adopting NLP systems, thorough market research enables companies to assess the current landscape and understand how competitors are leveraging NLP technology. Studying competitors' strategies, successes, and failures provides valuable lessons and benchmarks for fine-tuning companies’ NLP implementation plans. Incorporating competitive intelligence gained via market research empowers companies to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate themselves by offering better and more efficient NLP-powered solutions.
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• User Experience Optimization
  A robust market research process can significantly contribute to enhancing user experience (UX) while implementing NLP systems. By assembling user feedback through surveys, interviews, or focus groups, companies gain insights into users' desires regarding conversational interfaces, information retrieval, sentiment analysis, and personalized recommendations. This data enables businesses to fine-tune their NLP solutions, making them more user-friendly and effective, thus increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How Hammer can support you

Investing in quality market intelligence is an investment in optimizing NLP solutions, unlocking new possibilities that drive innovation and create a more efficient future for healthcare organizations. By conducting comprehensive market research, companies can maximize the benefits offered by NLP technology to improve operational efficiency, patient engagement, and overall business outcomes in the process.

It might be challenging to see if integrating NLP into your organization is the right investment. Or you might have already integrated NLP into your organization but are not sure how to expand its benefits to new business opportunities. For this, Hammer is by your side! Hammer has 30+ years of market research experience, 40+ clients across Europe, and a portfolio of projects in a wide array of industries.

Curious to know more? Get in touch!