In the age of consumerism, chronic disease, and technological innovation, the future of patient-centered healthcare will be very different from today’s experience. That is a good thing.

Healthcare is a service. Transformative methodologies deployed for decades in other service industries will be adopted, albeit evolved, into healthcare. And by far, the foremost service trend across all sectors is heightened personalization and greater choice — expressions of brand empathy with the customer.

The future of healthcare lies in authentic empathy for the individual patient — healthcare’s ultimate customer — and cultivating long-term relationships with brands based on trust and value.