Wired for Trust: Designing Patient Portals for Connection and Care

Written by Precision Communications | Sep 24, 2025 1:00:03 PM

Maureen Hennessy PhD, CPCC, CPHQ | SVP, Director of Value Transformation
Courtney L. Ottoson, MS | SVP, Managing Director Market Access

In an increasingly fractured healthcare ecosystem, consumers are crying for help. Confused and frustrated, many struggle to access care, struggle to understand treatment regimens, struggle with adherence. The result: poor outcomes for patients—and loss of income within the healthcare ecosystem. Here, we examine some of the causes, and how plans and pharmaceutical companies are responding.

Consumers want to feel cared for by their healthcare

A 2023 Global survey conducted by Bain found that consumers want more from their health insurers. They expect streamlined solutions for simple transactions; for more complex problems, they want easy access to competent and caring humans. Further, they’re seeking incentives and advice to prevent problems and remain healthy.¹In other words, consumers are advocating for patient-centric services and care.

Stewing in a broth of distrust and instability

A 2024 Gallup poll found that Americans’ perception of healthcare quality is at a 24-year ebb; only 44% of Americans rate the quality as excellent or good. Perceptions of healthcare coverage are even lower, with a mere 28% declaring coverage to be excellent or good.² Pharma fares still worse; in a 2023 Gallup poll a dismal 18% of respondents provided a very/somewhat positive view, the lowest rating in over 2 decades.³

Several factors in the healthcare landscape are exacerbating the problems.

Shifting priorities in federal government-supported research and initiatives undercut a substantial source of income for health systems. As of early May, the most recent proposed budget slashes Health and Human Services (HHS) spending, with the largest funding cuts aimed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In fiscal 2025 the agency received about $47 billion; the White House has requested almost $18 billion in cuts, a nearly 40% funding reduction.⁴ Along with these substantial cuts in research funding, health systems face significant increases in uninsured patients, in some cases swelling closure risks for rural and other financially threatened hospitals.⁵

Meanwhile, pharma consumers are mired in complex pricing and access challenges while their plans offer opaque coverage determinations and navigational mazes.⁶ Combined with exposure to high levels of medical debt and mis/ disinformation, pharma, health systems, payers, and consumers are all stewing in an unhealthy broth of distrust and instability.⁷

How centralized portals forge confidence and connection

Health plans and systems see the risks and are making changes. They are striving to enhance patient engagement, increase collaboration and loyalty, accelerate efficiency, and gain additional analytical consumer and real-world evidence (RWE) insights. One strategy: centralized patient portals.

Employing a rich array of media—website portals, apps, AI-powered chat functions, and telehealth⁸—portals provide much of what consumers seek:

Finger-tip access to services such as their health and benefit information, healthcare decision-making tools, provider search tools, appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and authorization status
Preventive health and chronic condition management resources to support self-management and shared decision-making information
Search functions that facilitate connection with community resources to assist with needs such as food insecurity and transportation, helping address social determinants of health

Some leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as device manufacturers and specialty pharmacies, are also developing portals, tailoring them for some of their portfolios and products. Often referred to as patient support programs, or patient hubs, these product-specific portals aim to address barriers to medication uptake and adherence, and may include:

Provider location and care coordination communication
Assistance with insurance coverage
Financial support
Support with non-medical barriers to therapy, such as transportation
Help resolving supply chain issues
Patient and family education
Disease management information
Side effect management tips
Prescription home delivery, potentially at reduced cost

Some services may be offered directly by brand teams, while others may be developed in collaboration with select vendors, such as telehealth providers and pharmacies in a hybrid model.^9-10

Of course, pharmaceutical companies have sound business reasons for developing such portals. Not only do they enhance brand loyalty for both consumers and healthcare providers, they can directly address the ~37% of pharma revenue lost annually to medication non-adherence.¹¹ Indeed, in one study, patient engagement programs increased adherence (14%), improved persistence (14%), enhanced refill rates (36%), and reduced disease-related medical costs by 22% at 12 months.¹²

A word on the importance of interoperability

Both to be truly functional and truly helpful, it is critical that portals coordinate with all the other electronic systems involved in the healthcare sphere—from electronic health records to pharmacy systems to insurance systems.

Integration and interoperability can alleviate administrative burden for healthcare providers, improve patient care and outcomes, reduce medical errors—and support true continuity of care.

Solidifying customer relationships

While much is written on the role and processes of integration of technology within these centralized portals, less attention has been paid to the psychological concepts powering their use. Since clinicians commonly assert that a relationship built on trust, empathy and collaboration is fundamental to patient engagement and better health,¹³ further consideration of psychology is not only warranted, but vital to the success of centralized hubs to forge positive consumer connections.

As humans, we are wired for protection and connection. From birth, we are scanning our environment for signals indicating safety and danger. Intuitively, we are alert to finding and forging bonds with individuals and organizations acting in a “prosocial” way with our best interests in mind.^14-15 Behavioral scientists emphasize that prosocial behavior—actions that benefit the well-being of others—are a superpower for enhancing social cohesion. A pharmaceutical company providing a convenient patient portal that truly simplifies the use of their product and helps support better health is seen in a positive light because of this.

Conversely, we also often formulate snap judgments influenced by cognitive biases or mental shortcuts. These judgments are based on rapid, reactive, and instinctive thinking, termed by Nobel Prize winner and psychologist Daniel Kahneman as “System-1” thinking. For example, the “anchoring bias” describes a common tendency to place excessive reliance on the first information offered (“the anchor”) when making decisions. Thus, centralized portals with complex navigation or chat access delays will commonly drive consumer dissatisfaction and abandonment. After all, “time waiting is time wasted.” Rather than forging a connection, the opposite occurs, and the centralized portal strikes out early in the engagement.^16-17

Empathy is an important beacon for prosocial behavior. Consumers with complex problems seeking human support who experience empathic concern and competent problem-solving skills from a centralized portal staff member (delivered by telehealth or in person) will be more likely to believe that the individual—and the organization they represent—have their best interests at heart. A trusting relationship ensues. Further, prosocial behavior can prompt reciprocity, potentially leading to adherence, positive social media reviews, and brand loyalty.¹⁸

Such empathy must be real, however. As a cautionary comment for developers seeking to incorporate AI-generated empathy statements within their portals, research has identified limitations to their efficacy, and more investigation is needed to identify circumstances for appropriate use to avoid unintended harms, potentially sabotaging the portal’s intent of forging trust and connection.^19-20

Finally, to build true connection, brands must remain accessible to all. The tenets of healthcare literacy can be helpful.

Universal support: ensuring inclusivity

Healthcare literacy is the ability to find, understand, and use health information to make informed decisions. That can affect both the way information is presented, and the media used to share it.

In today’s electronically driven world, the digital divide can be hard to remember—but in truth, not everyone has access to computers. Moreover, even when they do have access not everyone is comfortable with technology. Having alternate ways to access important information—whether print resources or human support—helps ensure critical communications are received and understood.

Further, all communications, whether hard copy or digital, should be designed for ease of understanding and with potential cultural barriers in mind. Using bullet points, short sentences, and everyday language helps keep materials scannable. Infographics, icons, and videos visualize explanations. Multi-lingual support and cultural sensitivity help overcome hurdles.

Developing materials and portals that are thoughtful of all not only strengthens the goal of communicating information, it underscores a brand’s commitment to patient-centricity.

The four “E’s” of engagement

In closing, life science, health plan and healthcare systems should keep the following four considerations in mind when developing and refining their centralized consumer portals:

Explore your portal using a prosocial lens, ensuring your technology leverages innate human processes to convey integrity and forge trust with your system
Elevate your portal co-design process to include a representative consumer group and front-line portal staff at planning, launch and throughout use, to optimize consumer engagement and loyalty.²¹And remember to include a feedback loop, such as surveys, to continually optimize services
Empower front line portal staff through empathy-building methods such as active-listening training, use of empathy maps, shared decision-making skills, motivational interviewing, and compassion training
Examine the use of AI within your portal, to monitor that its governance and practices build trust and avoid unintentional harms

Employing these methods helps ensure that centralized portals are designed around core human needs: trust, empathy, clarity, and connection. As such, they offer more than just convenience. They signal a meaningful shift toward consumer-centric healthcare, where technology is not a barrier but a bridge. When done right, these portals can reduce friction, restore confidence, and deliver measurable outcomes for patients, providers, and pharmaceutical companies alike.

As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, those who recognize and respond to the psychological and practical needs of consumers will not only see improved adherence and brand loyalty— they will help heal a fractured system, one human interaction at a time.

At Precision AQ, we understand how to connect with patients, boosting adherence, persistence, and brand loyalty. Get in touch to find out more about our successes in this area and how we can help amplify your brand impact.