Security, interoperability, flexibility: A Q&A on the 3 pillars of success in healthcare eCommerce

Healthcare practitioners looking to digitize should focus on three key areas: Security, interoperability and flexibility. Discover proven strategies from industry veterans to guide your digital transformation across these essential pillars.

For many years, digital adoption in the healthcare and life sciences industry has remained historically slow compared to other industries, and unsurprisingly so. After all, healthcare commerce involves a myriad of industry-specific complexities, including stringent regulations, privacy and security concerns, and a lack of data interoperability. Slowly but surely, however, this stark reality is changing: Gartner predicts that enterprise IT spending in healthcare will grow by 9.5% by the end of 2024, reaching $265.2 billion USD this year. 

But technology investment tells us only part of the story. The success of digitization initiatives, especially in the scope of eCommerce, boils down to three main considerations: Security, interoperability and flexibility. 

Hear from healthcare experts Amelita Ebuña, Director of Digital Platforms at molecular diagnostics company Cepheid, and Brian Gilmore, Head of Growth for MACH and Composable at system integrator EPAM, on their digital transformation experiences across these three cornerstones, with insights to kickstart your eCommerce journey with composable and MACH®. 

There’s no healthcare conversation without first considering the heightened security requirements and regulated environment regarding sensitive and protected health data. This is because 93% of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach, and 57% of those breaches involved sensitive patient health information (PHI). Needless to say, data breaches cost millions, and they erode an organization’s reputation and trustworthiness, which is important in healthcare — whether you’re selling primarily to other businesses or directly to the consumer (or patient). 

For Cepheid, a B2B healthcare company that supplies diagnostics tests and medical devices primarily to hospitals, security is paramount. While the company doesn’t handle patient data, they work closely with healthcare providers, so there’s always a risk that patient data might be uploaded to their systems. Moreover, ensuring that endpoints are secure, also in their medical devices, is crucial. Even as Cepheid doesn’t handle PHI, having a good understanding of data protection and privacy, as well as being compliant with regulations, have been key elements of its digital journey. 

Behind the scenes, the API-first nature of composable commerce enables secure transmission of data — especially those that are compliant with relevant regulations and meet security standards. While practitioners need to be careful about certain integration aspects of MACH-based applications, having an API-first infrastructure means there’s no need to segregate sensitive data and leave it out of the commerce experience. With a platform that’s compliant with HIPAA in the US, HDS in France and all other relevant security certifications, businesses can finally leverage sensitive data for commerce with confidence. 

Healthcare systems and institutions need to connect disparate systems, so they can interact and exchange sensitive data. Many of these systems speak different languages, so having the data flow seamlessly is really difficult, let alone considering the security aspects of it. Also, much of the healthcare industry still uses on-premise technology because there are many concerns about data security, so keeping it physically on a server may seem like a safer choice. 

However, cloud technology is a key driver in enabling data interoperability by simplifying integrations and allowing automated digital workflows. Indeed, Cepheid embraced the benefits of cloud technology since digitizing its commerce, as well as leveraging composable architecture and API-based integration to achieve seamless interoperability across systems — even if they were not originally designed to work together. 

While there are positive signs for data interoperability to thrive, like Cepheid’s success story, obstacles come from different sources: Legacy tech stacks, separate setups for B2C and B2B stores, and frequent mergers and acquisitions in healthcare and life sciences, which often lead to multiple disconnected stores. The answer to overcoming those challenges is, again, the API-first approach of composable. 

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is long behind us, it’s clear that enforced lockdowns accelerated digitization in the healthcare sector. Businesses have recognized the importance of adaptability to respond more quickly to market changes. As Gartner notes, “the adaptability you enable will determine the success or failure of your organization.”

Achieving adaptability is only possible when fully flexible systems are in place to change the components of your customer experience without friction. If your company outgrows something down the road, it shouldn’t be difficult to replace components of your commerce experience. This means moving quickly and adapting easily, giving teams the confidence to implement new technology, swap it out if needed and experiment without hesitation. That’s what Cepheid experienced with a composable approach, allowing constant improvement and rapid response to market needs — all achieved in a six-month implementation. 

While most of Cepheid’s customers primarily use EDI for orders, there’s a growing shift toward online ordering. Customers can check out quickly — the average time to place an order is two minutes from start to finish — and receive immediate order confirmations, instead of waiting up to 24 hours. Microservices and APIs provide real-time access to estimated delivery dates, pricing and availability through API calls to their ERP system, which is crucial for hospitals managing test turnarounds. This shift has also transformed buying patterns, with customers opting for smaller, more frequent online purchases instead of annual orders.

It’s clear why the flexibility of composable commerce is taking the healthcare industry by storm. It’s all about choosing the solution that works best for you — it’s already running in the cloud, so infrastructure setup isn’t a concern. Just set up your store, integrate it easily via APIs and design a custom frontend experience to make it uniquely yours. And, to retain maximum flexibility for your composable solution, double-check whether pre-composed solutions are changeable and adaptable in the long run. 

Digital transformation is so much more than technology; in fact, it’s essentially about people. No matter what industry you’re in, change management is crucial to getting people on board, even more so in a traditionally conservative sector such as healthcare. 

Top recommendations, in the words of these experts, include: 

“Choose an experienced partner to accelerate time to value and avoid pitfalls. Second, embrace incremental innovation,” said Brian. “Modern technologies like MACH and composable-based for your digital stores are very easy to adopt, and it's not an all-or-nothing thing. You can actually start out very small and get that feedback without spending a ton of time and money.”

Amelita shared three best practices: 

1. “Deeply understand your customers, especially in healthcare, where a patient-centered approach is essential. Being patient-focused and understanding what delivers value to patients and how to deliver them the best experience."  

2. “Invest in the right technology. Choose a platform that supports traffic, integrates well and delivers a seamless user experience.” 

3. “Foster a culture of agility and innovation. The digital landscape constantly evolves, so it’s important for organizations to be agile and open to change. Embracing a test-and-learn approach keeps your company adaptable, enabling quick delivery of features and staying competitive.”

There are many ways to foster a culture of agility and innovation that only composable commerce can enable. From following change management frameworks like the ADKAR model, which focuses on managing change at the individual level, to incremental innovation, your business can gain agility and respond faster to market changes.