Digital patient engagement is a balancing act of determining where resources should be deployed and how to create cheer-worthy experiences. 

The stakes for delivering the right mobile experience in healthcare have never been higher. A recent Accenture survey found digital engagement has a significant influence on patient retention. This raises pressure for health systems to design digital tools and experiences that strengthen patient loyalty and protect or increase revenue.

Meanwhile, across the country, it’s clear that digital health is driving “healthcare’s regeneration,” according to the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). The most recent CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Survey indicates health systems are increasingly relying on digital interactivity to engage patients and families—and they are doing so in more sophisticated ways. 

How do leading hospitals leverage digital platforms to improve the patient experience—and what could other hospitals and health systems learn from their approach? Here are three insights from the latest Most Wired survey.

1. Mobile functionality is ramping up in healthcare. Among the more than 38,000 organizations responding to the Most Wired survey, one trend that stood out is the increased array of mobile functionalities health systems are leveraging to engage consumers. These include price lists for services (14% increase), health maintenance campaigns (14% increase), mobile check-in (10% increase) and event alerts (13% increase).

There is a clear connection between the increase in the use of mobile solutions and improved scores on the Most Wired survey. 

One example is Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, which put all its consumer-facing digital services into a single mobile app for patients and their families last year and went on to achieve Level 8 on Most Wired. Such an approach offers enhanced access and convenience for families of children with complex conditions, who might travel an hour or more for in-person care. At Nicklaus Children’s, leaders believe digital access to live support and resources is critical to maintaining children’s health and providing peace of mind for parents.

2. There’s a move toward patient-staff digital interactions. While efforts to promote patient-staff interactions via digital devices are still relatively new, more health systems are putting staff in the digital driver’s seat. CHIME’s Most Wired survey revealed notable increases in efforts to train patients and their families on interactive devices (19%) and using technology to support care plan adherence (11%).

To make greater progress in this area, health systems should devote more attention to securing staff buy-in for a health system’s digital offerings prior to go-live. At Baptist Health, when employees learned the health system’s mobile app could support smooth transitions in care for patients, the health system recorded more than 2,000 downloads of its “Baptist Access” app even before the app’s official launch date. Many of these downloads were made by staff members, who recognized the impact the app could have on patient care and service.

3. Video education goes mobile. The Most Wired survey showed a dramatic increase in the use of patient- and family-facing videos to educate patients and families about procedures (16%), labs and test results (16%) and medications (11%). These videos can easily be incorporated into a health system’s mobile app to offer a convenient digital tool for reducing the stress associated with an upcoming procedure or helping patients better manage their care. 

Among the most frequently used video resources: family education videos (83%), videos about procedures (81%, up 16% over 2021) and health education videos (78%). About two-thirds of organizations offer a health library and incorporate video in health maintenance campaigns and education on medication use.

It’s clear that as digital engagement advances, more health systems are leaning into digital to personalize the patient and family experience. This is exemplified by efforts to target specific groups for specific types of digital education and resources, says Michael Saad, chief information officer, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville. “The pandemic surely accelerated this move to more targeted digital offerings, but the healthcare industry is absolutely headed to personalized digital care and support,” he says.

Engagement by Design

Achieving optimal digital engagement in healthcare is a challenge. It requires the development of a digital strategy based on consumers’ expectations and desire for increased ease in navigating their care journey without adding a burden to the health system. To effectively operationalize a true patient-centric digital strategy, keep the experiences of Most Wired survey participants and award winners in mind.

About Joshua Titus

Joshua Titus, CEO at Gozio Health, is passionate about creating mobile technology that informs and delights users. This passion led him to co-found Gozio after spending two decades in the left lane of high-growth silicon valley technology companies like NVIDIA. He has authored 11 patents and holds an electrical and computer engineering degree from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

What You Should Know:

– A new survey by Artera, a leader in patient communication technology, reveals a stark disconnect between how healthcare providers communicate and what patients actually want.

– The findings, based on responses from over 2,000 patients, paint a picture of frustration and missed opportunities, with simple phone calls and one-dimensional text messages falling short of patient expectations.

Communication Breakdown

– Nearly half (45%) of patients have missed or forgotten a bill due to communication difficulties with their provider’s office.

– 43% report negative health impacts from communication challenges, including issues scheduling appointments or sharing crucial information.

– A staggering 79% of patients want providers to offer text-based conversation on any topic, highlighting a desire for more convenient and accessible communication.

Texting: A Double-Edged Sword

– While 77% find automated text exchanges valuable, simplistic “yes/no” interactions dominate, frustrating 69% of patients who long for deeper conversations.

– Two-thirds report incomplete text experiences, with 31% failing to achieve their goals at least half the time, often resorting to phone calls.

– Technical glitches and unanswered messages further exacerbate the problem, with 62% experiencing error messages, invalid responses, or radio silence from providers “half the time” or more.

Financial and Human Costs

– Providers failing to meet communication expectations face financial consequences, as 59% of patients are willing to switch doctors due to poor communication.

– Artera’s research sheds light on the impact on healthcare workers as well, with a December 2022 report finding outdated communication strategies contributing to staff burnout.

Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and Founder of Artera, emphasizes the importance of patient-centric communication: “As a $4 trillion market, healthcare should offer unmatched customer experience. If patients can’t communicate seamlessly, they won’t engage, leading to a sicker population and more expensive care long term.”

What You Should Know:

– Zocdoc, the healthcare marketplace, has released its inaugural What Patients Want Report, offering valuable insights into what patients seek from their healthcare experience and providers.

– Based on millions of bookings and patient interactions, the report paints a picture of how patients are navigating the healthcare landscape today, and what they expect from their providers and the industry at large.

Key findings of the report include:

• Women driving appointment bookings: Women are more proactive in booking appointments, with Millennial women leading the charge in booking on behalf of others.
• In-person visits and timely access remain crucial: Patients prioritize in-person appointments and prefer to schedule them soon after searching.
• Gen Z leads in mental health bookings: This age group seeks mental health care more than any other, reflecting a growing awareness and prioritization of mental well-being.
• Patient Empowerment Index reveals room for improvement: The inaugural index reveals moderate patient empowerment, with nearly 1 in 5 Americans feeling they have little control over their healthcare and 15% facing access challenges.

Predictions for the Future

• Mental health boom: Mental health bookings are expected to surge in the latter half of 2024, potentially influenced by upcoming elections and increased awareness.
• Convenience triumphs tradition: Patients will prioritize convenience and accessibility for routine care, potentially impacting traditional healthcare models.
• AI to the rescue: AI advancements will free up valuable time for providers, allowing them to focus on personalized patient care.
• Big Tech’s muted impact: Despite heightened noise from tech giants, their actual influence on healthcare delivery is likely to remain limited.
• Digital consolidation: The landscape of patient portals and digital front doors to healthcare will likely see consolidation, offering a more streamlined experience.
• Savvy prescription shoppers: Patients will become increasingly informed and empowered to compare medication prices and make informed decisions about their prescriptions.

The report emphasizes the need for healthcare providers and systems to adapt to evolving patient preferences. By prioritizing patient-centered care, focusing on convenience and access, and leveraging technology for greater efficiency, the industry can empower individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing.

“As the leading healthcare marketplace, we offer patients the ability to search and book with nearly 100,000 providers across every specialty, every state and every segment,” said Zocdoc founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz, MD. “By aggregating a diverse array of providers that patients can choose from, all in one place, we empower them to have more control over their care. We are proud to give voice to what patients really want by highlighting emerging trends and preferences expressed through the millions of bookings made through Zocdoc each year.”

Patient Empowerment Index Survey Methodology

Zocdoc commissioned Censuswide to collect this data via an online survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and up. The survey was fielded November 14 to November 16, 2023. Respondents were assigned scores based on their answers to the three questions. These scores were then averaged to find the Patient Empowerment Index number, ranging from -80 to 120. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society, which is based on the ESOMAR principles.

Today, more than 131 million Americans – 66 percent of all adults in the U.S. – use prescription drugs, and one in four use three or more, according to the Health Policy Institute. Not only are we being prescribed more drugs than ever before, but we’re paying more for them too: the U.S. has the highest per-capita pharmaceutical spending among the developed countries. In 2021, the U.S. healthcare system spent $603 billion on prescription drugs.

But even as we’re being prescribed more drugs, we’re failing to take them. Lapses in medication adherence are worrisomely common, with studies showing that 20%-30% of medication prescriptions are never filled, and a staggering 50% of medications for chronic disease are not taken as prescribed. 

This lack of medication adherence has serious repercussions for both our physical and financial health. Statistics show that each year in the U.S., non-adherence to prescribed treatments can be attributed to at least 125,000 preventable deaths, up to 25 percent of hospitalizations, and $500 billion in preventable medical costs.  

The Causes of Non-Compliance 

Patients themselves are not always the cause of medication non-compliance. People generally want to do what’s best for their health, but there are several potential factors that may keep them from taking their medications as prescribed, including financial limitations and logistical issues. Some patients, especially those from more vulnerable populations, take less medication than prescribed because of the cost. Other patients may face logistical barriers such as lack of transportation, which makes it difficult to stay on track with medications because the patients have no way to pick them up. 

But there are also other, more controllable factors that impact patients’ medication adherence, including:

• Insufficient patient education. Patients may not take medications because they don’t understand the benefits of the therapy or potential consequences of non-adherence, or because they are afraid of the side effects. 
• Health literacy. patients’ health literacy is central to their ability to adhere to their treatments.  Studies show that the risk of non-adherence is very high when patients cannot read and understand basic written medical instructions. Misunderstanding of this type is not as uncommon as one might imagine, with one large study of 2,500 patients finding that nearly one-third had marginal or inadequate health literacy. 
• Complex treatment regimens. Patients may have trouble remembering what their doctor told them and may require extra support to remember what medications to take and when to take them.
• Lack of trust in the healthcare provider. The interpersonal dynamics of the physician–patient relationship play an important role in patient’s adherence to their treatments.  Patients who believe that their physician is someone who can understand their unique experience of being a patient, and can provide them with reliable and honest advice, are more likely to take their medications as prescribed.

Personalized Patient Engagement is Critical to Getting Patients to Adhere to Treatments 

Many of the barriers described above can be overcome with better patient engagement and communication. For example, while clinicians don’t have control over drug pricing, they could offer lower-cost options if they recognize that price is an issue for a particular patient. Clearer patient education about the risks for side effects and the realistic result of therapy is essential for patients who don’t fully understand their treatments.  

But to achieve effective engagement, in which the patient understands and internalizes information, is motivated to act upon it, and provides reciprocal information, requires true personalization. Until recently, personalization in digital communications simply meant adding the recipient’s name in the introduction of an email or calling out a health condition s/he may be managing. Such mass approaches to patient engagement (whether for education or marketing) have proven insufficient. What’s needed is a new approach that leverages patient data to gain insights into what motivates them. Patients provide a significant amount of historical health and other personal information about themselves; finding a way to use this data to create hyper-personalized communications through preferred channels is central to achieving real patient engagement.

Leveraging Psychographics to Create Personalized Communications 

Psychographic segmentation (dividing people into groups using psychological characteristics including personality, lifestyle, social status, activities, interests, opinions, and attitudes) has been used for decades by the world’s most successful consumer products and retail companies to influence decisions, behaviors and user experience. However, psychographic segmentation is relatively new to healthcare and represents a way for consumer science to augment and support the delivery of care, as well as help healthcare providers achieve their business goals.

Healthcare has historically taken a “one size fits all” approach to patient engagement, using the same message and channel mix with every person who shares or seeks to prevent, a given health condition. Patients are people first, who happen to have a health issue but do not define themselves solely by that issue. They have distinct personalities and motivations that influence their choices and behaviors. Psychographic segmentation helps classify people according to their motivations and communication preferences to optimize targeting, messaging and the engagement experience. 

Today, there are advanced patient engagement technologies that leverage psychographic profiles to understand patients’ lifestyles, motivations, and engagement preferences to deliver hyper-relevant messages designed to trigger action. These solutions enable healthcare organizations to provide personalized care without increasing staff workload and serve as a valuable tool in addressing medication non-adherence. 

The reasons patients fail to adhere to their drug treatments are highly personal – engaging these patients in an equally personal way is the key to solving the problem.

About Carrie Kozlowsk
Carrie Kozlowski, OT, MBA, is the COO and co-founder at Upfront Healthcare. Over a career spanning 25 years, Carrie has combined real-world clinical experience with strategic thinking and an entrepreneurial drive to lead strategy, operations, and talent development at forward-thinking organizations focused on population health. Carrie’s clinical background includes providing direct care, training, and management services as a practicing occupational therapist. She holds an MBA in Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Illinois Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Hartford.

What You Should Know: 

• LG Business Solutions USA launches a new line of “Patient Engagement Boards” that empowers hospitals to outfit patient rooms with crisp high-definition screens for displaying patient information such as their name, schedule, a list of caregivers, native language and more. 
• The new Patient Engagement Boards are now available in a 43-inch UHD model and 32-inch FHD model, featuring Power over Ethernet (PoE) capability, offering optimized solutions and simplified installation for diverse patient room needs.

LG Patient Engagement Board Overview

The LG Patient Engagement Boards (ML5K-B Series) are designed to improve experiences for patients and caregivers while simplifying operations for administrators and IT staff. The 32-inch model can be rapidly deployed utilizing POE without the exhaustive approval process commonly associated with modifying a room’s electrical components. Convenience is further enhanced by each display’s automatic brightness sensor, which ensures viewing comfort by matching ambient light levels throughout the day.

Both models can be wall-mounted vertically or horizontally using 200×200 VESA mounts. And both displays feature LG IPS panels and offer up to 50,000 hours of life, making them ideal for 24/7 use. Integrated stereo speakers further simplify deployment and provide flexibility to host a variety of content. The 43-inch 43ML5K-B offers a typical brightness of 500 nits and has a 25 percent haze treatment that reduces glare, while the 32-inch 32ML5K-B provides 400 nits through standard power and 200 nits through PoE. 

“As hospitals continue to digitize more and more of their operations, in-room displays provide patients and caregivers with greater legibility and infinitely more flexibility than analog white boards,” said Tom Mottlau, LG Business Solutions USA Healthcare Director. “Our patient engagement development partners have utilized the powerful LG webOS 6.0 platform to develop intuitive applications that can allow hospitals to eliminate handwritten notes and the difficulties that can arise from illegible writing or unclear instructions. These enhancements can improve communications and patient trust, resulting in better overall experiences.”

When it comes to consumer engagement, other industries have had a significant head start. For years, retailers, banks, and other customer-centric organizations have been working hard on curating digital experiences that simplify, personalize, and secure interactions and transactions with their consumer base.

Accessing your savings account through an app is now the standard for millions of people. It’s second nature to use the chat feature on a clothing retailer’s website to get information about an order or schedule a return. And even utilities companies now offer extensive online dashboards to help consumers manage their energy usage.

This is all creating an expectation among consumers—when interactions are quick, easy, and successful within one industry, it encourages them to look for similar high-quality experiences within others. Now, that’s starting to influence how patients expect to interact with their healthcare providers.

Patients want the experiences they get as consumers

It’s often difficult to prioritize spending on a patient engagement strategy when there’s life-saving equipment and everyday care delivery to worry about. But recent figures show that 61% of US patients are now demanding better experiences from their care providers. They want to be proactive about their health, but often the tools simply aren’t there to support them.

In many cases, patients need to navigate complicated and outdated phone systems to contact their providers, while administrative staff have to field inquiries, manage appointments, and ensure clinicians have the information they need for consultations.

Some healthcare providers have been making tentative steps toward technology that creates a “digital front door” where patients can access some information and do basic tasks relating to their care. 

It’s time to expand beyond the digital front door 

During the pandemic, the patient access centers of thousands of healthcare organizations were put under immense pressure. Patients are getting more involved with managing their health—and many are now approaching their providers with concerns they kept to themselves at the height of COVID-19.

As demand grows, healthcare organizations need to evolve their systems to provide more convenient routes for patients to book appointments, order prescriptions, check on test results, or view their medical history. By matching the experience more closely to those patients get from brands in other sectors, organizations can encourage patients to take more ownership of their health too.

With the ability to choose their own appointment slot through an online booking system, for example, patients are far less likely to no-show on the day. Plus, making notes and clinicians’ recommendations available through a web portal will help patients manage their ongoing care.

Proactive contact gets patients involved with their care

Increasing compliance with treatment plans is the key to better outcomes. But whether a patient schedules a follow-up appointment, remembers to take their medication on time, or makes recommended lifestyle changes can be out of the clinician’s hands as soon as the consultation is over.

Clinicians often won’t have time to call and check in on their patients regularly, and busy desk staff don’t have the medical expertise needed to guide those conversations. However, an automated, proactive outreach program—through SMS or voice calls, for example—can help keep people on track in their wellness journey before and after their appointment, like this:

– An SMS the day before the appointment reminds the patient to arrive on time with any documentation they need—such as a list of existing medications—and prepared for any tests. 

– A push notification to their healthcare app can let them know when their new prescription is ready to pick up.

– The web portal can collate all the relevant literature for managing their condition into a central repository, so patients don’t rely on internet sources.

– And then, a personalized follow-up call a couple of weeks after the appointment can prompt them to give feedback on any side effects and schedule a check-in at a time that’s convenient.

Close the experience gap in healthcare

Many organizations in other sectors have stepped up their digital strategies to close the experience gaps they identified when brick-and-mortar locations closed. It’s time for healthcare providers to do the same—and there are plenty of excellent examples to draw from.

As well as meeting patients’ growing expectations for the healthcare experience, investing in technology will help streamline the journey through care pathways, from the moment a patient gets in contact to when they’re discharged completely.

Frequent, personalized contact builds trust between patients and their clinicians, so they’re more likely to be honest about their symptoms and follow advice closely. In the long term, that leads to better outcomes and helps take pressure off clinical staff and those who support them.

Engagement is just one piece of the patient experience puzzle—and proactive engagement tools are just part of the solution. Expanding the digital front door into a fully digitally-enabled healthcare environment will also require careful consideration of clinician workloads and support staff processes to ensure the benefits are felt across the care continuum.

About Diana Nole

Diana joined Nuance in June 2020 as the executive vice president and general manager of Nuance’s healthcare division, which is focused on improving the overall physician-patient experience through cutting-edge AI technology applications.

She is responsible for all business operations, growth and innovation strategy, product development, and partner and customer relationships. Over the course of her career, Diana has held numerous executive and leadership roles, serving as the CEO of Wolter Kluwers’ healthcare division, president of Carestream’s digital medical solutions business, and vice president of strategy, product management, and marketing for Eastman Kodak’s healthcare information technology solutions business.

As a patient engagement product director, there’s nothing that I love to hear more from customers than they live and breathe in the systems we’ve created. We’ve thought long and hard about UI; about the rich dashboards we build; about new ways to expand functionality within the parameters of our applications and programs. 

But there’s a hard truth that I—and the healthtech community at large—need to learn, or have already: 

Most of the people who use our software aren’t focused on actually using our software. 

I don’t mean that no one is thinking about patient engagement, of course. On the contrary, patient engagement is becoming a c-level imperative at healthcare systems across the country. And that’s happening for good reason. Effective engagement has emerged as a leading tool on two fronts: 

– Counteracting the labor crisis in healthcare by improving job satisfaction through the streamlining of intensive manual outreach and rounding

– Helping healthcare leaders create new dynamic experiences for patients and competing in an industry increasingly defined by consumerism

But on the healthcare front lines, everyday users of engagement products are focused on performing extremely demanding jobs in the most efficient way possible while doing right by every patient that comes through the door. That means that the tech center of their daily universe isn’t patient engagement, but rather the program they use most in their daily duties: The EHR. 

And that means that patient engagement solutions, while still critically important, can’t distract from patient care or complicate workflows. Interoperability is paramount, and patient engagement should in essence become as visible or invisible as each user wants it to be.

The Electronic Health Record, or EHR, is almost universally treated as the single—or at least most important—source of truth for healthcare systems. And while it’s a central hub for clinical patient records, non-clinical—but still contextually important—data must be pulled in from elsewhere. 

A proliferation of point solutions add value in terms of data collection, but many are tacked onto IT architectures and siloed, resulting in data gaps or cumbersome manual data processing and integration, preventing timely and nuanced data analysis. 

Where does patient engagement fit? 

In short, patient engagement should exist wherever a user wants to leverage its functionality, whether that be within a patient engagement software program, or through data-sharing-enabled functionality within the EHR. The future of patient engagement is omni-channel—not only from a patient perspective, but a hospital caregiver perspective as well. 

Tight and immediate data integration has become table stakes. The new basis of competition for healthcare IT vendors will come through integration of experience. The modern paradigm in patient engagement allows super users rich functionality within patient engagement apps, but also seamlessly integrates insights in real-time into the EHR. 

So what happens when patient engagement data, functionality, and insights are ported into the EHR in near real-time? For starters, providers have single-point access to longitudinal health histories, enabling informed care decisions. Health systems are also empowered, meanwhile, to glean population-level health insights and digest macro trends to improve care and operations. Additionally, providers are better able to: 

– Coordinate care: Using an EHR system that’s tightly integrated with patient engagement and other tools like scheduling, data can follow patients across the entire continuum, shared among providers everywhere to enable the best, most-informed care. For example, real-time integration enables use cases like alerting physicians when a patient checks into an emergency room, or seamless care transitions between settings, facilities, and providers

– Tap into analytics: Whether it takes place inside the EHR or elsewhere, automation and analytics are key to improving operations and care. Data availability—as well as the proper tagging systems and training—is the foundation to enabling the digital transformation needed in healthcare. Through real-time data availability in the EHR, providers can overlay engagement data with clinical data to identify trends and areas for improvement. 

– Enhance workflows: If engagement data is mapped directly to the EHR in discrete fields, the cumbersome work of reconciling information across systems is negated. Additionally, functions like intake, post-discharge outreach, and point-of-care surveys can be automated and operationalized directly into the system of record. 

– Improve patient experience: Interoperability flows directly into patient experience. When frontline staff have contextual, non-clinical data at their fingertips, they’re better able to understand and adapt to patient preferences and historical data. Simply put, they are able to provide care in a way that shows patients they understand their unique situations and have catered care accordingly. 

– Increase staff satisfaction: Providers have the opportunity to resolve a major clinical pain point: by funneling engagement data to the EHR, they can cut down on the endless toggling associated with accessing and inputting data across systems. 

– Improve patient outcomes: Real-time data availability simply boils down to faster, better-informed clinical decisions. Actions can be taken before conditions escalate, decisions are made in light of the full clinical and contextual picture, and patient health is improved. 

Ultimately, in healthcare as well as everywhere else, true value comes in meeting your customers where they are. And for healthcare providers, that means meeting them in the EHR. It’s an important evolution in the healthcare interoperability revolution—and it’s one that not only better serves the frontline providers accessing the systems, but most importantly the patients themselves, through enhanced experience and better clinical outcomes. 

About James Rachlin
James Rachlin is the Director of Product, Interoperability at CipherHealth, driving product management and platform strategy with a focus on integrations and interoperability. James has spent over 10 years leading healthcare interoperability efforts at national and state-level health information exchanges and several technology vendors.

What You Should Know:

– Indegene, a technology-led healthcare solutions provider, today announced a partnership with Amwell to facilitate life sciences organizations to connect patients to better quality care and drive better health outcomes.

– This partnership will facilitate Indegene to enable life sciences organizations to drive virtual care automation and patient companionship to advance longitudinal care, behavioral health, and other specialty and chronic care segments. It will help patients access treatments they need and receive continued support to remain adherent through their health journeys.

Customized Digital Patient Engagement Solutions

Digital patient engagement has disrupted the healthcare landscape. Patients are increasingly becoming more knowledgeable and involved in their health journeys. They want personalized support solutions that are available on the go. The technology partnership between Indegene and Amwell will enable life sciences organizations to transform their patient support capabilities and engage with patients across digital, virtual, and physical mediums. It will allow Indegene to include Amwell’s digital care platform Converge™ into its end-to-end patient support framework and enable life sciences organizations to offer a personalized care model.

“Patient needs are rapidly evolving, and life sciences organizations often struggle to provide customized solutions that cater to them. By partnering with Amwell, we hope to equip life sciences organizations with customized patient engagement solutions that boost access to cutting-edge treatments and improve health outcomes,” said Nitin Raizada, Vice President, Enterprise Commercial at Indegene.

We talk about patient engagement a lot in healthcare today. But the reality is, we often don’t just want a patient to engage with a piece of content or information; we want them to take action. The traditional CRM and marketing automation are great tools for the former – keeping patients and their healthcare providers connected. But it does little to move beyond a digital connection.

Today’s patients (or, consumers) expect more from all of their relationships, especially their healthcare providers. And, health systems have a need to drive loyalty, revenue, and improved health outcomes.

To achieve that, systems need to take their CRM strategy to the next level: CRM Intelligence. Combining data and AI can take patient engagement to the next level: patient activation.

When the right patients receive the right communication at the right time, they do something that moves them further along their healthcare journey; whether that’s scheduling a screening or an annual wellness visit (AWV), the patient becomes actively engaged. 

Patient activation as top concern

Recent research sought to understand the priorities of mid -to -large-size health systems; the resounding answer from patient outreach and communication teams: patient activation. With the growing presence of retail health clinics, direct-to-consumer (D2C) healthcare brands and the decline of the traditional provider-patient relationship, health systems highlighted the need to deliver relevance and value at every touchpoint.  

Engagement alone is no longer enough. Engagement that leads to activation is critical to keep systems competitive and patients healthy.

Traditional CRM systems fail to deliver insights

Health systems are swimming in data; so much that healthcare executives often talk about “data overload” or “data paralysis.” Traditional non-AI-powered CRMs help organize this data, which can be a welcome benefit when volume and complexity are so high. But that’s where they stop.

They don’t offer automated guidance or insight on a prioritized list of next best actions for the patient based on that data. Doing this at scale can be a game-changer for both health systems and their patients.

Artificial intelligence enables patient activation

For health systems, AI models can enable a hyper-targeted, one-to-one approach to patient outreach. To do so, they can connect and train on a health organization’s existing data sources to determine which patients to engage, for which services, and through which channels. Unlike a traditional CRM, CRM Intelligence detects correlations between rows and columns of patient data to prioritize – and predict – the most relevant action(s) for each patient.

Intelligence-based outreach efforts yield measurable results

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, one East Coast-based health system wanted to let patients know it was safe to come back – and ensure the patients who needed care most were first through the doors.

 So, they started with breast cancer.

With AI modeling, they went far beyond demographics and patient history, to probe multidimensional EHR, payer, claims and third-party datasets and observe millions of local population encounters to identify patients who were up to 15x more likely to have breast cancer vs. the general population. Then, they developed customized communication journeys for each individual, digitally engaging patients with personalized content via their preferred channels of communication.

From March 2020 through May 2021, 11,310 mammograms were scheduled. As a result, 1,395 breast cancer diagnoses were made in patients who may have otherwise postponed screening due to pandemic-related fears.

Changing healthcare consumer expectations require new engagement strategies

An estimated 10 million cancer screenings were missed during the first months of the pandemic alone, which is having a negative downstream impact on people’s health and overall cancer outcomes. While these were extraordinary times as a result of a global pandemic, the reality is, to get people to make these important preventive care appointments, health systems and providers need to be more proactive, relevant and timely in their outreach. Ensuring a message about scheduling a colonoscopy reaches someone at highest risk for colon cancer has a much higher likelihood of that patient scheduling – and showing up for – an appointment. 

Every patient is a consumer, and they have become accustomed to receiving messages that are tailored and customized to their habits, history and needs. Now they are shifting the expectations for that same kind of content and engagement to healthcare.  

Today, that shift represents a mostly untapped opportunity for health systems and providers to connect more effectively, proactively and intelligently with patients. Doing so not only presents new revenue opportunities and competitive advantage but can improve patients’ overall health and health outcomes.

The combination of AI and data represents a game-changer for health systems – the move away from one-way engagement and towards meaningful patient activation.

About Michael Linnert 

Michael Linnert is the Founder and CEO of Actium Health, a digital health company on a mission to help healthcare organizations – from practice groups to health systems – leverage their audience data to improve patient engagement, health outcomes and exceed business goals. At Actium, he’s guiding those organizations successfully through the consumerization journey to meet their patients where they are. 

What You Should Know:

– Babylon (NYSE: BBLN) acquires patient engagement platform DayToDay Health (“DayToDay”) to provide Babylon members with DayToDay’s digital-first, highly engaging programs and clinical services prior to and following scheduled surgeries, major health events like childbirth, and following diagnosis of chronic conditions.

– Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Enhancing Lives by Guiding Patients with Individualized Care

Although almost all care and recovery journeys extend beyond hospital and clinic walls, there is little support available for most people during their crucial recovery period. DayToDay was founded in 2018 by Prem Sharma, a serial entrepreneur, and Dr. Khalid Aljabri, a cardiologist at Tufts Medical Center, during their time at MIT through the Delta-V accelerator program.  DayToDay solves this need by providing patients targeted education, communication and clinical support from a personal care team before or after clinical visits, hospitalizations, or surgeries.

Having served thousands of acute care patients who had significant medical issues, DayToDay’s health management has shown significant benefits. For example, the company has been able to keep rehospitalization rates below 4%, while the industry average is close to 15%, and cut down the expected wound infection rates by 93%. Babylon will integrate DayToDay’s scalable capabilities into its existing digital-first healthcare offering to support members as they prepare for and recover from medical interactions, no matter where they may be located.

Post-Acquisition Plans

As part of the acquisition, DayToDay’s team will join the Babylon team to lend their technical expertise, and to help merge DayToDay’s guiding mission to create the ultimate patient care experience for anybody, anywhere in the world, with Babylon’s mission to provide accessible and affordable healthcare care to every person on Earth.

Babylon’s team of clinicians, doctors, and nurses will oversee the implementation of DayToDay’s pre-and post-operative care management, ensuring end-to-end care coordination and the right treatment at the right time. This will allow clinicians to care and support patients within hospital settings more efficiently and send them home knowing they’ll receive guidance through the imperative recovery process, a time when people often need care assistance most.

“We’re excited to welcome the DayToDay team into Babylon, as both companies work toward the same goal of leveraging technology to enhance the patient experience,” said Ali Parsa, Founder & CEO of Babylon. “As we continue to evolve our value-based care services and empower our members to take control of their health, the addition of pre- and post-surgical care will help our members at a significant period of needs, improving overall accessibility, quality and affordability outcomes.”

What You Should Know:

Northwell Health and Playback Health sign multiyear deal to launch patient engagement platform at clinical sites across health system.

Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider and Playback Health, a software technology company dedicated to helping care providers build deeper, more meaningful connections with their patients, today announced a multiyear agreement to launch Playback’s patient engagement platform at select locations across the health system. Playback’s software technology empowers patients by supplying them with medical information that they can revisit, replay and share with others, enabling them to better understand their condition or treatment and more fully engage with their care.

Playback Health’s Patient Engagement Platform

Playback is built on the recognition that patients often have trouble digesting and remembering information provided during medical visits, especially when a clinician is sharing a stressful diagnosis or complex care plan. To help patients hear, absorb and understand, the platform provides information that is curated by providers from the medical record. Clinicians can create personalized care instructions using video, audio, pictures, and text to communicate a patient’s diagnosis and care plan clearly and compassionately. For example, a clinician can include a video in which he or she displays an MRI image or other test result and explains what it indicates about the patient’s condition.

In addition, Playback video calling allows clinicians to directly connect with their patients, to check on how they’re feeling, or for a telehealth consult. This capability also allows clinicians to touch base with others on the care team. All moments are captured and available for viewing anytime, anywhere, by the patient and their care team.

With a rich user interface and robust integration, Playback’s software is purpose-built. It is designed to promote mobility and sharing of point-of-care medical data and information captured in a hospital’s electronic medical record and patient portals or from third-party medical devices while adhering to strict security standards for health information.

“At Northwell, we understand that many of the most troublesome problems in health care come down to lack of communication,” said Richard Mulry, president and CEO of Northwell Holdings and Ventures, the entrepreneurial arm of the health system, which is leading the rollout of the Playback platform across Northwell. “We are excited by the opportunity to develop and roll out this innovative, scalable technology that takes doctor-patient communication to a new level. Based on the results of pilot programs at Glen Cove Hospital and other sites around the health system, we are confident it will improve not just the experience of patients in and out of the doctor’s office but ultimately the quality of their care.”

We are incredibly lucky to live in a historically connected world. The internet, smartphones, and technology of all kinds have brought people together in ways unimaginable just a few decades ago. These massive communications paradigm shifts have also left their mark on medicine, although in an unpredictable way. One of the most positive impacts on healthcare hasn’t been a breakthrough treatment or therapy – but an increase in patient engagement and a deep understanding of its importance in positive health outcomes.

Patient engagement, or patients actively educating themselves and being treated as a partner in decisions about their healthcare, is a key part of the “triple aim” of improved outcomes, better care, and lower costs. Patients want to be champions for their own health. Thanks to the ease with which anyone has access to the internet – from the most curious toddlers to the most tech-resistant seniors – people now have the tools at their fingertips to be that champion.

Tracking your steps or sleep schedule with an app or wearable is great, but the real problems arise when patients turn to WebMD or “Dr. Google” to self-diagnose or learn on their own. It’s indicative of a lack of engaging resources that resonate with individuals and their personal goals and can lead to confused, overwhelmed, and potentially misinformed patients. When patients don’t have access to relevant, trusted health resources, it creates challenges for all health stakeholders.

The solution? We must put the patient at the center of care. We must also forge new relationships with patients and their providers and fortify existing ones. Patient engagement takes many forms, but we know it goes well beyond a simple consult or occasional phone check-ins. Healthcare is building a more collaborative process around treating patients, and the results speak for themselves.

The hard facts

Patient engagement isn’t a post-COVID fad – healthcare consultant Leonard Kish boldly proclaimed that patient engagement is the “blockbuster drug of the century” in an article nearly a decade ago. What have we learned since then?

In clinical settings, patient engagement decreases hospital readmission rates and improves medication adherence when patients are home. Through a combination of technological tools like wearables and healthcare apps to more old-fashioned techniques as simple as providing written care plans and connecting patients with community resources, patients experience improved outcomes. These are not the exciting, revolutionary breakthroughs that will get your face on the cover of JAMA, but they are the keys to boosting positive health outcomes for all patients.

The flip-side is true as well – patients with low health literacy are 4.5-times more likely to experience post-surgical infection than those with adequate health literacy. Lack of engagement in treatment decisions was cited in a 2017 study as a main patient-related barrier to medication adherence. The math is simple. When patients have the information they need and are integrated into the decision-making process, they have better health outcomes.

Patient engagement is not just good for patients, but good for physicians and payors as well. More leaders are including financial discussions as part of the patient engagement formula. 43 percent of patients said they changed their behavior regarding medical visits or procedures because of costs while 24 percent delayed prescriptions or never had them filled for the same reason. If the healthcare industry is interested in making patients a member of the team and helping them be champions of their health, finances are a necessary evil to tackle. Plus, good patient engagement leads to better reimbursement.

The positive impact of patient engagement goes beyond involving the patient as a collaborator in their own health, and engaging patient caregivers can have equally positive health benefits. In one study, simply involving a patient’s family member as part of their care team reduced hospital admissions by 25 percent.

In light of the studies and analyses and think-pieces and expert panels, a simple fact shines through. Patient engagement works. It improves outcomes, saves money, and facilitates a more positive and productive experience for all parties involved.

What next?

Unfortunately, we can’t call on Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson to mass-produce this particular “blockbuster drug.” Luckily, we can bring together business, healthcare, and technology leaders who are already working hard to advance this paradigm shift embracing patient engagement.

We can increase health literacy by engaging with patients and making the healthcare information more available to the patients and caregivers where and when they need it most. In a world where we can watch our favorite television shows on three different streaming services, there should be no reason patients and their loved ones can’t get access to easily understood, reliable healthcare information.

Similarly, if physicians and healthcare networks embrace the patient engagement tools modern-day technology affords us in combination with face-to-face engagement techniques, all patients and caregivers can experience the positive outcomes they deserve. Today’s world is more connected than any other time in history. Healthcare leaders must use this incredible opportunity to bring patients into the fold.

When customers shop online, they are at the center of the shopping experience. When they browse their favorite streaming service, they see customized recommendations based on their viewing history. Let’s leverage that knowledge and technology to put patients and their caregivers squarely in the center of care and in the center of the healthcare experience.

About Carina Edwards

Carina Edwards is the CEO of Quil, the digital health joint venture of Comcast NBCUniversal and Independence Blue Cross. Bridging the silos between providers, payors and employers, and empowering individuals and their caregivers, Quil is a health engagement company offering a portfolio of digital-forward engagement solutions that address the distinct needs of the providers and payors of health, and arm patients and their caregivers with all the knowledge and encouragement they need to optimize their health experience. From procedural journeys like hip replacement to life events like birth/maternity, Quil’s ability to meet individuals ‘where they are’ – in preferred digital forums from a smartphone, tablet, to TV – drives better individual and caregiver engagement in partnership with their providers and payors.

What You Should Know:

– Health Catalyst, a provider of healthcare data and analytics solution announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Twistle, Inc. (“Twistle”), an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based healthcare patient engagement platform. The acquisition was funded using a combination of cash and stock.

– Founded in 2011, Twistle’s SaaS patient engagement platform automates patient-centered, HIPAA-compliant communication between care teams and patients to transform the patient experience, drive better care outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs.

– Integrated with Health Catalyst’s population health offering, the acquisition of Twistle will enable a comprehensive go-to-market solution to address the population health needs of healthcare organizations, as well as Life Science organizations, around the globe.

– Health Catalyst’s cloud-based data platform, DOS™, will enhance Twistle’s automation by enabling richer data-driven patient interaction. The Twistle technology also enables Health Catalyst’s clinical, quality, and Life Sciences solutions, through established clinical pathways and patient communication channels.

It’s well understood that patient engagement leads to better outcomes. A powerful way to boost engagement is by delivering a personalized care experience so that patients can manage their condition in a way that best aligns with their lifestyle and goals.

Two of the most effective patient engagement initiatives include: 1) clinicians spending more time with patients and, 2) shared decision making. Although clinicians would prefer more face-to-face time with patients to better assess their healthcare vision, there isn’t enough time in the day to do so. How can providers and clinicians help patients feel more empowered and engaged in their plan of care long-term in a way that’s realistic?

As patient engagement takes center-stage, many providers are merging technology with 1:1 communications in a way that focuses on the individual – not just their condition – and bringing it to scale. Find out how.

Key Features of a Personalized Patient Experience

Providers have countless digital technologies at their fingertips to improve the patient care experience. From patient portals and smartphone apps to texts, voicemail, and email to name just a few. However, at the heart of patient engagement is communication and collaboration. The fancy bells and whistles of technology may deliver streamlined and “directed” communication, but if they don’t provide a method to deliver tailored conversation that is specific to the individual, then it’s unlikely these efforts will realize maximum impact.

Personalized care at scale must go beyond providing material specific to a patient’s condition and general interests based on gender, age, and socioeconomic status. To effectively inspire engagement, platforms must also include the following key features:

●     Conversational, linguistic-appropriate dialogue that invites patients to ask questions and get answers in a response format that feels intimate and personal.

●     Flexibility to adjust care paths and goals that adapt to natural life transitions each patient inevitably journeys through. For instance, parenthood, a new job, or retirement are moments in which an individual may reevaluate their personal health goals. As such, digital-first platforms must have the flexibility to adapt to these transitions so the plan of care stays relevant and feasible.

●     Enhanced patient experiences that encourage fun and memorable interactions.

●     Deliver tailored two-way communication that fosters rapport, trust, and more meaningful opportunities for engagement and empowerment among diverse patient populations.

Digital healthcare platforms that harness these key elements are better positioned to deliver personalized care at scale.

How Does Personalized Healthcare Improve Patient Outcomes?

More providers and clinicians recognize it’s not enough to reach out to patients and provide treatment plans and guidance based on the condition alone. This strategy risks a lack of response and resolve from patients. Nor is grouping patients into “buckets” based on socioeconomic status such as interests, age, race, or gender adequate. For a truly personalized approach that is transformative, a two-way dialogue must occur in which patients ask questions and are given the education, tools, and guidance to develop healthy habits to get on the road to long-lasting health outcomes.

A study that focused on the costs of care between patients that received “usual” support from health coaches and another group that received “enhanced” support which included more tailored contact with health coaches via email, text, and phone yields great insights. The enhanced support group demonstrated results that suggest protective benefits of personalized attention. The enhanced group of patients saw the following improvements over the usual group:

●     5.3% reduction in total medical costs

●     12.5% fewer inpatient admissions

●     2.6% fewer ER visits

●     9.9% fewer surgeries

This study also suggests that “remote” models of support that combine 1:1 communication with digital interventions may offer a high reward/minimal cost to better patient outcomes through patient engagement.

How 1:1 Communication Works for You and Your Patients

Providers and clinicians appreciate that more active clinician/patient time may lead to more deeply engaged patients. Until recently, this investment would require more time with each patient, and likely fewer patients seen overall each day resulting in less income.

With automated 1:1 conversations, providers can help their patients be better engaged with their plan of care and positioned to experience better health outcomes. All this at a cost and time-savings for everyone involved.

It’s essential for providers to incorporate digital health platforms that are driven by authentic, automated 1:1 conversations that speak to who the patient is and tailored to how they envision their care to be.

Effective platforms must have the capability to dive deep into what truly motivates an individual as well as be responsive to life transitions that may influence an individual’s personal healthcare goals. In doing so, providers, clinicians, and patients may forge a true partnership based on communication and trust. The result? Mobilization of diverse patient populations that are confident in their competencies to practice healthier habits and achieve their best health possible.

About Tim Aumueller

Tim Aumueller is co-CEO of Avidon Health, a health engagement and behavior change company. Tim is an innovator in the healthcare industry with extensive experience engaging patients in health improvement programs within some of the largest healthcare systems including RWJ Barnabas Health, Hackensack Meridian UMC, and Atlantic Health System.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the healthcare continuum within the past year, creating many roadblocks in the path towards high-quality care delivery. Amid these challenges, we have witnessed a significant shift in patient wants and needs, in addition to heightened demand for accessible, convenient clinical care. Notably, the desire for more care processes to be performed digitally has emerged as a priority among patients. According to a recent survey by Accenture about patient behaviors, 60% of the 2,700 patients surveyed said they want to continue using technology and use it more often, both to manage conditions and to communicate with their healthcare providers.

In responding to the changing healthcare landscape, there is a new exigency to reassess the wants and needs of patients. Providers of all types are exploring new methods, processes and solutions that can help them meet both evolving patient desires and shifting demands for episodic and longitudinal care. However, for modern care providers who operate on a more retail, patient-consumer business model, such as the urgent care market, adjusting the way they operate to better serve their patient populations carries even more weight and dramatically swings the fortunes of both their short and long-term business success. As patients increasingly choose convenient, on-demand care locations, the way urgent care providers engage with patients and foster an ideal patient experience is vital for 2021 and beyond.

Year One of living through a pandemic has underscored the importance of healthcare providers evolving alongside their patients.  By harnessing key capabilities of patient engagement technology and delivering the care experience patients expect, urgent care providers will take the lead in delivering what we might consider the healthcare experience 2.0 moving forward. 

Moving more of the care process to the digital space

There has been rapid adoption of telehealth and virtual care processes within the past year, along with an escalated awareness of how technology can revolutionize the healthcare landscape. The shift towards more digital and remote care options since the onset of COVID-19 has provided a level of relief to those worried about exposure from standing in lines or spending time in crowded waiting rooms at their local urgent care clinic. With the Urgent Care Association’s annual Benchmarking Report stating that roughly 97% of urgent care experiences are up to or less than one hour for patients, both the practicality of these facilities and their ability to efficiently serve patients in need of quick, accessible, convenient care has been revealed more broadly. The appeal of the modern urgent care experience has captured the attention of new patients, many of which seeking a digitally native care experience, as well. In 2020 alone, visits from new urgent care patients comprised nearly half of all urgent care visits across more than 5,000 U.S. clinics.

To keep this influx of patients safe from infection and physically distanced for as much of their visit as possible, clinics are offering expanded visit-related functionalities through digital platforms. Online portals allow patients to handle almost all non-treatment visit components virtually. Patients can schedule appointments through electronic patient registration (EPR) via a mobile device, fill out required pre- and post-visit paperwork online, monitor the wait time queue at their location and receive notifications and reminders when it is time to arrive for their appointment. Additionally, to add digital convenience beyond online scheduling, EPR increases accuracy in the electronic record, enabling smoother processing of claims, fewer rejections, and quicker payment. While this improves the revenue cycle for providers and simplifies the workload of the front desk, it also gives patients peace of mind, reduces their anxiety, and shortens their time spent in-clinic. 

Practicing over-communication with patients electronically

With continued concerns, confusion and questions around the latest status and protocols surrounding COVID-19, many patients seek more direct communication. Providers must recognize the intensified human component of healthcare today, understanding that the needs and emotions of patients have amplified due to fears emanating from the pandemic, resulting in more questions to be answered and more expectations for guidance. With this understanding, providers are maximizing their use of digital and electronic communication solutions to ensure patients are engaged, educated and assured in the ways they need. 

To enhance engagement between on-site providers and off-site patients, urgent care providers can harness technology to stay connected with their patients before, during, and after a visit. For example, by using online surveys as a timely follow-up, providers can quickly gauge patient satisfaction levels and patients are able to share feedback with ease. For urgent care practitioners, access to a comprehensive suite of solutions and EMR can facilitate operations including ePrescribing, charting, and retrieving patient information. Through administering digital services that make it easy to collect visit reviews and patient feedback data, providers can see what works well and what needs to be adjusted at their clinic to ensure patients feel positive about their visits on a consistent basis. 

Transparency is also key to gain the trust of patients, and can be also achieved through patient portals and EMR software, which provide a seamless care path that is approachable and user-friendly. Text-based surveys and virtual wait rooms also offer patients insight into operations, which can provide them the assurance needed around any hesitations with seeking care. Finally, technology can uphold safety measures by reducing errors and securing patient information. With an integrated suite of software solutions, urgent cares can gather and interpret data to better understand the wants and needs of patients and unearth new ways of improving experiences while ensuring their concerns are being addressed. The adoption of technology goes beyond streamlining overall workflow processes – implementing digital tools enables providers to better serve patients and ensure safety.

Moving forward

Technology plays a necessary role in transforming healthcare, and the rapid implementation of digital solutions and tools following the COVID-19 pandemic attests to this. Patients, like consumers in all other industries, make decisions based on their feelings. In urgent care, these feelings are shaped by more external factors than ever. Evolving alongside patient expectations and introducing effective patient engagement solutions in the urgent care setting not only helps providers manage the patient experience, but it can also have a significant effect on patient outcomes – the best of both worlds.

About Tim Dybvig

Tim Dybvig is the senior vice president of patient engagement at Experity where he oversees patient engagement operations. Experity is the leading HIT company providing integrated technology solutions to more than 5,800 on-demand healthcare practices and urgent care centers nationwide. Prior to his current role, Tim was the CEO and co-founder of reputation management company Calibrater Health, which has since become part of the suite of solutions provided by Experity. Tim can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.