By John Greenfield and Kimberly A. Whitler Few would argue that the US healthcare industry is currently undergoing a seismic shift. Just one of the changes facing healthcare is based on consumer behavior shifts as more employees find healthcare independent of their employers. The result is that healthcare companies of all shapes and sizes are faced with a new and startling reality: yesterday’s customer is not tomorrow’s customer. Suddenly, healthcare marketers are expected to deeply understand consumer preferences, create relevant products that meet a changing target’s needs, and produce marketing programs that connect consumer insight to firm performance. As consumers take a more active role in their healthcare decisions, marketers must listen and adapt in order to remain relevant. To frame this shift and identify some of the key takeaways for healthcare marketers, we turned to Brent Walker of c2b Solutions, a company that consults with healthcare organizations on marketing and sales strategy solutions with a focus on generating deep consumer insights. Greenfield and Whitler: What are the key drivers of the shift in consumer-driven healthcare? Walker: There are many reasons why we are evolving toward consumer-driven healthcare, though rising costs are the predominant factor behind these drivers… on a macro scale, the drivers fall across three main categories ... Read more at Forbes.com.