Dimple Dang in conversation with Prittle Prattle News
Role of Artificial Intelligence in Patient Engagement
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a simulation of human-like intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans. AI involves building machines that demonstrate learning and problem-solving in a way similar to how humans would do. The history of AI dates back to the 1950s when John McCarthy first coined the term.
Ever since the potential of AI has been realized, AI has been taken up by all sectors, including the healthcare sector. The healthcare industry has been behind other industries when it comes to adopting AI. The global market for AI in the healthcare industry has been projected to reach USD 66.8 billion by 2027, from USD 3.6 million in 2019 at a 44% CAGR. AI has the potential to transform various aspects in the healthcare industry, including research, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, and administration of healthcare delivery, including enhancement of patient engagement.
“Patient Engagement” in healthcare refers to patients being as informed as possible about their options for treatment, medications, recuperation, and all other aspects of the healthcare system supporting them. In other words, patient engagement involves “providers and patients working together to improve health.
Patient engagement often varies from disease-to-disease, with chronic diseases generally having a higher amount of patient engagement. Other factors that affect patient engagement include the setting (government hospital vs. private hospital vs. teaching hospital), doctor factors (how much time the doctor is willing to spend with the patient), patient factors (education, occupation, willingness to be involved, etc.), and geographical factors (urban vs. rural, country, etc.).
Patient engagement is often seen as the ‘last mile’ problem of healthcare – the final barrier between ineffective and good health outcomes. Engaged patients can make better-informed decisions about their health care. It has been proven that a higher degree of patient engagement can lead to better health outcomes, better patient care, improved quality of life, more increased patient safety, lower healthcare costs, improved patient experience, and optimal healthcare utilization.
The concept of improving patient engagement has become even more relevant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea of social distancing during the epidemic has forced patients to choose newly emerging options like virtual consultations and telehealth consultations for their healthcare. This has led to a situation where doctors find patient engagement a challenging task, with reduced opportunities to interact with patients directly.
In this opportune moment, the potential for AI to improve patient engagement has been realized. AI has the potential to assist during each step in the patient engagement cycle:
- Symptom Search: The number of patients searching for information about their symptoms on the internet has increased more than ever. The AROGYA SETU app, launched by the Government of India, works on an AI-based self-assessment of symptoms. This app also keeps track of other app users the person came in contact with and alerts the app users if any communications test positive for COVID 19. A tertiary care hospital in Bangalore has introduced a Robot for COVID-19 screening.
- Doctor /Hospital Search: AI-based symptom checkers listen to patients’ symptoms and other health concerns and then guide them to a suitable hospital or a doctor.
- Scheduling an appointment: An AI-based app can schedule meetings that match the patient’s timings, thus improving patient satisfaction. Such an app can also enable the patient to make an informed decision after comparing reviews about the doctor/ hospital from other users.
- Doctor-Patient interaction: AI-based apps provide a repository for the healthcare data of a patient: thus, healthcare records are better maintained and shared; this also avoids unnecessary repetition of tests and scans. Patients can interact with multiple doctors without being physically present in the doctor’s waiting room.
- Doctor’s treatment advice: AI-based apps provide patients with information about accurate doses, actions, side effects, drug-food interaction, and time of taking medicines. They also inform patients about alternative brands of drugs at a lower cost.
- Bill pay/Health Insurance Claims: AI-based apps can help doctors and hospitals streamline collections of bills and health insurance claims.
- Follow-up after the visit: Patients remember very little of the information they receive during their hospital visit. Giving patients a digital version of the post-operative care plan can reduce this gap and increase patient adherence to follow-up visits.
- Satisfaction surveys: Conventional patients surveys have low completion rates. This can be overcome by providing patients with digital surveys, which increase the return rate and validity of the survey results. Digital surveys can also help identify a problem in the health care delivery chain that requires attention.
- Instructions and reminders: Patients with chronic diseases often need home-based care. AI-backed apps can educate such patients about their condition, medication reminders, and make them confident in managing their health. Tailoring condition-specific apps help in distant monitoring of the disease and a better understanding of the patient’s condition.
“We at MarksMan Healthcare Communications are passionate about changing healthcare delivery in India. Our latest venture is the KYT-Adhere smartphone application, an AI-based digital therapeutics application to increase patient adherence to medications and thus improve patient engagement. KYT Adhere has a unique feature by which patients are rewarded for maintaining their adherence level above a pre-specified percentage. This has a dual benefit for the patient: in addition to the monetary reward, the patient also becomes healthier under being able to adhere to his/ her doctor,” conveys Ms. Dimple Dang to Prittle Prattle News. KYT Adhere is undergoing the final phases of testing and is available for invitation-only download. Being HIPAA compliant, KYT adheres to the utmost security features to ensure patients’ data safety and privacy.
For more information visit https://kyt.ai
