imageAs consumers gain more financial skin in the game of paying for health care, we look for more retail-like experiences that reflect the Burger King approach to consuming: having it our way.

For health are, that means access, convenience, transparency and fair costs, respect for our time, and a clear value proposition for services rendered. That doesn’t happen so much in the legacy health care system — in hospitals and doctors’ offices.

It has already begun to happen in retail health settings and, especially, in the changing nature of pharmacies.

Retail Health 2027, a special supplement to Drug Store News published this week, presents a picture of a future of health services where pharmacies play a central role in consumer-facing, value-based care. Take a look inside the issue, where I discuss the importance of consumers’ growing demand for customer service in health care.

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  The phrase “personalized medicine” has one meaning inside healthcare baseball, and a whole other definition to Everyday People. Consumers can customize all kinds of goods and services they pay for out-of-pocket, from fragrance and beauty products to window blinds and automobiles. “Why not health care?” people ask. Especially health care; what’s more personal than that?

It’s instructive to know that U.S. consumers’ 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings put supermarkets, fast food, and retail at the top rankings. Burger King got it right, through mass customization and standardized procedures, way back in 1974 when they first coined their tagline. Here’s the video that promoted personalized burgers, from 1976.