Patient engagement is a hot topic in healthcare, and for very good reason. Engaged patients tend to make healthier lifestyle choices, adhere to care plans, and achieve positive overall health outcomes.
Because patient engagement has been a top priority in healthcare for a while, the strategies are getting more sophisticated. As modern consumers’ needs evolve, pharmaceutical companies must rethink and adapt their patient engagement programs to support adherence, boost therapy initiation, improve outcomes, and reduce costs.
But what exactly should a modern patient engagement strategy look like? Let’s talk about patient engagement and the steps your organization can take to optimize its strategy:
Improving Your Patient Engagement Strategy with AI Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is changing how we engage and activate patients across the healthcare industry. How? AI technology pulls from large, diverse datasets that provide multiple views of patient behavior. From there, AI makes predictions that lead to better decision-making, patient experience, and patient engagement.
Here’s how you can use AI to improve your patient engagement strategy:
1. Target the patients who need the most support
Some patients are naturally more in need of support than others. AI can identify high-risk individuals and the patients most likely to be influenced by an intervention. This way, instead of reaching out to each and every patient, healthcare organizations can deliver targeted patient interventions that are more effective and cost-efficient.
2. Identify any gaps in care
Not filling a prescription, poor medication adherence, and insufficient medication management are all examples of gaps in therapy, which can lead to negative health outcomes if they’re not addressed. Fortunately, AI can pinpoint these gaps in therapy, giving healthcare organizations a better idea of which patients to prioritize for engagement. By being more proactive, you can catch patients before they fall!
3. Choose the right channels
Omni-channel patient support programs incorporate and orchestrate numerous intervention channels rather than sticking to phone-based engagement. Implementing a patient engagement strategy that encompasses several channels—including text messages, emails, web chatbots, apps, direct messages, videos, and phone calls—can enhance patient outreach and influence individuals’ next-best-action.
4. Personalize engagements
Patient engagement shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Unlike the generic, rules-based interventions of the past—which typically involved sending the same messages to patients groups or segments simultaneously—AI can personalize messaging based on each patient’s individual needs. Personalized interventions help influence each person’s engagement, optimizing their overall experience for better program results.
5. Evolve programs over time
Even the best strategic initiatives can become stale if they don’t evolve. Healthcare organizations should continually transform patient engagement programs to meet patients’ changing needs and behaviors. By using AI and analytics to identify opportunities for improvement—and then adapting initiatives in response—healthcare organizations can increase the likelihood of achieving their desired outcomes.
Refining Your Patient Engagement Strategy for Optimal Results
AI can promote patient engagement. With AI in your toolbox, you can predict patients’ needs, personalize outreach, and maximize your strategy over time to deliver the most effective engagement possible.
