The concept of direct-to-consumer (DTC) has transformed entire industries when companies meet consumers where they are. Health care now faces its own version: direct-to-patient (DTP). This new class of models meets patients where they are and removes frictions that have long prevented ideal patient experiences. Recent regulatory initiatives, sharper consumer expectations, and rapid AI adoption are reshaping patients’ interactions with health care providers in real time.
Imagine the complete health care journey—ranging from pre-symptom and early symptom recognition to treatment support, recovery, and long-term engagement—reorganized with the patient (consumer) at its center. Today, solutions from the pharmaceutical industry generally kick in once patients have been diagnosed and medication has been prescribed. This is beginning to change as innovators show what more consumer-oriented models can deliver across the entire patient journey.
Amazon, for example, recently launched Amazon Pharmacy kiosks—prescription drug vending machines—at some of its One Medical clinics. Patients can pick up their medications at a kiosk immediately after their appointment via a virtual consultation with a pharmacist. Popular GLP-1 therapies, which help patients lose weight and lower cardiovascular risks, are increasingly becoming available in retail, subscription, and alternative channels. Similarly, Rho Nutrition now offers a subscription service that allows customers to receive items such as the cellular health treatment Liposomal NAD+ at home.
The Forces Shaping the New Patient Experience
Three forces—regulation, consumer contagion, and rapid AI adoption—are already driving significant improvements in the DTP experience. (See Exhibit 1.) Each is powerful on its own, but the combination of the three and their anticipated long-term effects are motivating industry players to rethink all aspects of the patient journey.
Regulatory Change. US regulatory change is providing short-term motivation to focus on DTP models. In May 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order to establish most-favored-nation pricing for select brand-name drugs. In an attempt to ensure that patients receive the lowest price possible, this order also encourages pharmaceutical companies to distribute drugs directly to patients via cash-pay (paying the list price for a drug vs. going through insurance). To support this initiative, the administration plans to launch a DTP portal, Trump Rx, in early 2026, that would connect patients to participating manufacturer-driven DTP platforms.
The list prices of many drugs do not make it affordable for most patients to pay the full cash price Nonetheless, the administration’s emphasis on going direct-to-patient has increased the industry’s interest in this channel. Pharma companies are increasingly realizing that DTP is applicable in any situation where there is significant friction in the patient journey, not only in cash-pay situations.
But the health care industry also needs to look beyond regulatory changes and its own early experiments to understand the two other forces that seem poised to fundamentally reshape the future patient experience.
Consumerization of Health Care. The positive experiences that consumers enjoy in the day-to-day shopping journeys for products and services have begun to influence other shopping journeys. Even the purchasing journey for B2B customers continues to converge toward what B2C consumers are familiar with: omnichannel presence, intuitive user interfaces, and a seamless user experience. This “consumer contagion” is now spreading rapidly to health care. Some 72% of patients want care specifically tailored to their clinical needs, according to Abbott Global Research. Companies such as Capsule, an online pharmacy, already remove one point of friction from patient engagement by delivering over 95% of prescription orders within hours.
AI Adoption. The growing penetration of AI tools is changing how patients and physicians make decisions. OpenAI’s comprehensive report of ChatGPT usage, released in September 2025, reveals that 5.7% of all user queries—over 140 million per day—concern health, fitness, beauty, or self-care. As patients try to exert more control over their health care decisions, they are now approaching physicians with choices informed by their own research.
How AI is Reshaping Health Care
The three forces make clear that significant and enduring changes to the patient experience are coming. We can’t predict the future with precision, especially as AI evolves, but we can describe two worlds that illustrate the directions the industry could head. (See Exhibit 2.)
Consumer-Directed AI. Imagine a world where a patient’s first visit is with an “AI doctor” rather than a human one. The virtual doctor is available 24/7, knows the patient’s health history, and has context for their symptoms. The patient describes their current issue by sharing pictures, data from their wearable devices, or simply their own words. The AI doctor responds with clear advice, a prescription, or a referral to a human specialist.
This world is emerging because of rising patient autonomy, greater access to information via large language models, and financial pressures. A survey from the US Centers for Disease Control shows that over 50% of patients now research their conditions online before seeing a doctor. Rising deductibles and the high cost of specialty medications are also encouraging patients to take more responsibility for managing their care.
AI-Assisted Health Care Professionals. Now imagine a world where a patient’s first visit is still to their trusted doctor, but the doctor is supported by AI-enabled tools that guide the diagnostic process. These tools don’t replace human judgment, because the doctor still makes the final decisions. Instead, they operate automatically in the background to help accelerate diagnoses, minimize diagnostic errors, and surface insights no human could find alone.
Their value also extends beyond the immediate diagnosis: AI can help streamline patient care delivery, predict outcomes more accurately, and continuously monitor patient data and lifestyle inputs to enable treatment adjustments in real time.
We see this world emerging for two reasons. First, patient trust in clinicians remains high. Some 81% of patients report trusting their doctor, according to PatientPoint’s 2024 Patient Confidence Index. Second, AI and generative AI already play an important role in health care, and their use is accelerating. The HIMMS/Medscape 2024 report showed that 86% of US medical organizations report using AI, while 60% said AI is uncovering health patterns and diagnoses beyond human detection. A recent BCG survey projects that by 2027, GenAI adoption will drive operating expenditure savings of as much as 8% to 10% across medtech, payers, and biopharma while contributing as much as 6% to 11% revenue growth.
Five Guiding Principles for Advancing the DTP Experience
The two visions of AI-powered DTP health care demonstrate the power of current trends to shape future decisions. We can’t precisely predict the optimal specific solutions that health care players should implement as these or other visions emerge. But we can look to other experiences with consumerization and AI penetration to offer five guiding principles for the transformation of the DTP experience. (See Exhibit 3.)
There is no one “right” DTP model. The solution needs to solve patient frictions across the entire journey. That means looking at all stages for opportunities as well as thinking of modular solutions. Examples of existing DTP formats include branded hubs, lightweight service layers, retail partnerships, and cash-pay channels. But replicating yesterday's playbook is almost never the right model.
Make “human-centered” the priority by solving real frictions with empathy. Human-centered design is grounded in real frictions, solving with empathy, and bringing trust to the forefront. Biopharma companies need to prioritize moments of patient stress or confusion and then design experiences that feel intuitive, consistent, and respectful. Consumer leaders that do this well, such as Airbnb and Lemonade, redefined their industries by starting with the sources of friction. Airbnb made the unthinkable—staying in a stranger’s home—feel safe and trustworthy by designing around transparency and reassurance. Lemonade reimagined insurance by eliminating the paperwork, jargon, and waiting. They proved that the process of obtaining insurance could be fast, simple, and even enjoyable. These players treat empathy as a hard design requirement rather than a soft value.
Treat trust as the foundation, not a feature. Trust is the core of a health system. If patients don’t trust the information, support, or intentions behind the services they receive, nothing else will matter. Every interaction, from the first AI-driven answer to the final refill reminder, either builds trust or erodes it. Trust derives from five elements: clear value exchange, visible control, transparency, answer quality, and accountability. (See Exhibit 4.)
Understand consumer contagion. Heightened consumer expectations continue to spread across industries. Patients do not benchmark their health care experiences against what other pharma players offer. They compare them to the best consumer experience they had that week. It is becoming essential for health care players to design with a consumer-first mindset.
Enhance the talent and operating model. The industry has historically operated in functional silos, but that structure works against delivering a cohesive patient experience. Successful DTP models require teams that bring together functions that historically never sat together: marketing, patient services, medical, AI/tech, data science and engineering, business unit leads, and operations, to list a few. Organizations need to embed customer-centric design and journey ownership into how they work, not bolt them onto existing services. New capabilities—including service design, digital product management, AI fluency, data strategy, and patient experience design—will be essential.
The health care industry is approaching an inflection point. Regulatory shifts may spark action, but consumer expectations and AI innovation will define the long arc of change. Winning will require more than incremental improvements. It will demand a consumer mindset, AI-enabled capabilities, and teams organized around the full patient journey. The companies that invest early, challenge old assumptions, and design with trust and the patient at the core will set the pace for the future of DTP.
