According to the study by Accenture, 60% of patients are willing to use digital solutions to manage health conditions and communicate with doctors. Virtual tools are easy to adopt and are perceived as an essential lifeline for healthcare professionals. Monitoring health through medical platforms, using video calls, and accessing medical records should become an integrated part of the medical system—all these appear to be vital elements of the patient journey.

As a healthcare provider, you probably wonder how to innovate, stay current with clients’ needs, and ensure patient satisfaction. First of all, patient engagement software is worth considering, as it will surely boost both patient experience and revenue.

What is patient engagement in healthcare, and why is it worth digitalizing?

The context of patient engagement solutions is that individual patients often do not contribute to their course. As a result, they are not sure if all the prescriptions are needed or how the medicine affects their health and the activities around daily life. Without patients getting engaged in their healthcare process, you are not able to build trustworthy relationships with your clients. Moreover, it is impossible to predict other risks if you are not provided with the information on time. The sense is not only to visit a doctor while ill but also to be offered services that would help avoid illnesses. After all, healthier patients are satisfied patients.

Read also: Predictive Analytics in Healthcare – How to Improve the Efficiency of a Clinic?

Traditionally, patient engagement required high effort in daily medical practices.

Patients’ relationship with healthcare providers

We should think of patient engagement in healthcare as a partnership between a patient and healthcare providers. It aims at providing a complete overview of a health condition, thus opening the door to further discussion. As a healthcare provider, through patient engagement solutions, you offer your clients an understanding of their health status, communication, and ability to change health outcomes. 

Such a solution enables shifting from a fixed formula of time-limited doctor’s appointments, resulting in a list of medicines to buy. Instead, it offers dynamic tech-based communication in which doctors can reach out to patients anytime, using multiple channels of patient communications, resulting in a constant flow of information. 

Why is this flow needed? First, it facilitates the healthcare journey: it informs about opportunities, mitigates risk, and foresees various condition scenarios. Second, it enables online appointment scheduling and contactless payment. Third, technology helps doctors keep in touch with patients and builds trust-based relationships. 

Interest in patient engagement software has shown rapid growth after the COVID-19 outbreak, and there is no sense in abandoning this trend. So, if you think of innovations in your hospital or clinic, health systems adoption is the right direction to take

Read also: Software for the healthcare industry: what is it and why it’s worth using?

Should you invest in building a patient engagement platform?

Patient engagement vs. patient experience

Insights from research by Xtelligent Healthcare Media reveal that 67% of healthcare providers consider patient engagement in the patient experience a core factor in service development. Patient engagement is active; it revolves around the patient’s participation in the process. Patient experience, on the other hand, is passive and resides in the overview of how a patient receives and assesses the patient care. 

The study has shown a strong link between high patient engagement and health outcomes. This bond contributes to this innovation becoming a pillar of health policy. With patients involved in the process, you can envision bespoke software development services that emerge from listening to your patients – and it will pay off by increasing customer satisfaction, facilitating patient acquisition, and improving patient retention.

In general, patient engagement is an essential element of the patient experience. Patient experience, on the other hand, is a broader idea comprising all the patient’s interactions with the health system. And it should never be ignored. Even the loftiest goals become low standards if not well coordinated.

Patient engagement software often present lab results and other patient information.

Why should you consider a patient engagement platform? 

While presenting the advantages of digitalization of medical practices, we should mention what patient engagement technology is. Firstly, we should consider patient engagement platforms from software companies. Such platforms enable patients to reach their health condition data through multiple channels. They communicate with their care providers using electronic devices such as smartphones or laptops and get automated appointment reminders, online scheduling features, appointment reminders, etc. Thanks to this solution, there is no need for a patient to wait on call or visit the clinic to make an appointment or know about the status. 

Who can benefit from patient engagement software?

Patient engagement software is dedicated to all healthcare organizations whose services comprise direct contact with a single client. One can note an increase in popularity among patient engagement solutions for hospitals or clinics. Health engagement software serves to schedule appointments, send automated appointment reminders, and maintain the accessibility of medical records. If you decide to implement such a patient engagement solution, you can:

  • reduce the number of no-shows due to easy to use the re-scheduling system,
  • receive valuable feedback from clients thanks to patient satisfaction surveys and online reviews, 
  • use this feedback to improve patient satisfaction,
  • practice marketing opportunities to draw the attention of new patients,
  • include patient education features through secure messaging to increase patient safety,
  • boost patient loyalty and streamline communication thanks to involving the patient in the patient intake process.

The conclusion is that a digital patient engagement platform simplifies the healthcare process for your client and brings substantial benefits from the business point of view.

patients engage more thanks to patient engagement software

How can you use AI to improve patient journey?

Although we need a human experience to deliver high-end services, we all agree that healthcare is bonded with much data and combinations. That is why scientists spot a modern pattern of providers using AI to enhance patient engagement solutions. Thanks to opportunities emerging from using AI, clients can be given advice that a human doctor could not (by the given timeline) provide. 

First, we should think of risk strategies. AI can monitor patient data and identify existing patterns of risk during and after the courses. Then, as a healthcare provider, you can widen the list of services with recommendations for patients who underwent certain operations based on statistics provided by AI. 

Patient engagement revolves around the whole patient’s behavior. Although we can struggle to identify it every time, there is a tempting opportunity to avoid mistakes. Here, the possibilities of AI development services emerge again, with the red hero cap fluttering on the wind of engagement. They provide a clinic with pre-defined but personalized treatment based on the analytics of patients’ behaviors and their health records. 

What is the best patient engagement software utilizing AI?

Conversational AI

The best patient engagement software utilizing AI harnesses a variety of innovative technologies to improve the patient experience and foster active participation in healthcare management. One notable example is conversational AI, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, which can provide patients with 24/7 access to information, appointment online scheduling, medication reminders, and answers to frequently asked questions. These AI-driven tools reduce the burden on healthcare providers by handling routine inquiries and administrative tasks, allowing medical staff to focus more on direct patient care. Moreover, advanced natural language processing (NLP) capabilities enable these systems to understand and respond to patient queries with high accuracy, creating a seamless and supportive interaction that enhances patient satisfaction and engagement.

Hyper personalization in patient engagement software

Another critical aspect of AI in patient engagement is personalized health management. AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of patient data, including electronic health records (EHRs), wearable device outputs, and lifestyle information, to deliver tailored health recommendations and interventions. For instance, predictive analytics can identify patients at risk of chronic conditions or complications, prompting timely interventions and personalized care plans. Additionally, AI-driven platforms can offer customized patient education content and behavioral nudges to encourage healthier lifestyle choices and adherence to treatment plans. By providing individualized support and actionable insights, AI-powered patient engagement software not only empowers patients to take charge of their health but also helps healthcare providers deliver more effective, patient-centered care.

Read also: Important challenges in AI adoption

Artificial intelligence plays vital role in patient engagement software

How do you encourage patient engagement?

Although the vision of patients truly engaged in monitoring their health condition seems appealing, nothing can be done without understanding. Let’s imagine you have a patient portal at your disposal and even a risk mitigation system based on AI as a bespoke service pioneer. You would like to set the communication with your patient based on insights from data (e.g., lab results, patient surveys, etc.), not one-sided intuitive talks. What you should do now is make sure that the patient understands you, even very basically. So as to be a reliable healthcare partner, not a digitalized quack. 

Engage patients with simple messages

First, you should remember that healthcare is fulfilled with academic terms. And those scientific phrases have such a power that even ailing patients can flee quickly just after first encountering them. Therefore we should keep information simple so it would be understandable. Instead of throwing words absorbed mainly by professionals, it’s better to explain the phenomena more comprehensively but lucidly. You can face this challenge by devising compelling interfaces that increase user experience. And it’s worth considering using diverse forms of educational materials, including videos or step-by-step articles. 

Provide actionable advice for better outcomes

Basic information is not enough to increase patient engagement. We also need to analyze how we can use it and, preferably, provide the patient with step-by-step solutions. If I told you that you could be a billionaire but just start making cash, I wouldn’t be reliable, I guess so. Sometimes, it happens that a patient hears a similar “happiness prescription,” such as “You are diagnosed with asthma. Stop smoking”. Easy to say, difficult to do.

That is why doctors should always provide the patient with an overview of possible solutions and explain how to approach changes. In this case, they can recommend medicines that help quit the habit and different ways for brief relaxation instead of cigarettes. And you can do it with the magic of patient engagement software. For example, chatboxes with assistants answering pre-defined questions. Or even with automation tools that would send emails through a patient portal based on the diagnosis. For instance, a client would be digitally given a recommendation of articles concerning quitting smoking during heart disease.

Read also: What are the patient engagement solutions?

patient engagement systems increace patients motivation to participate in the treatment process.

Involve patients for better patient outcomes

The patient population tends to be engaged in the processes that are open for their statements and decisions. Nowadays, many people are more willing to search for information on Google than adjust their acts to doctor’s recommendations. It drives professionals crazy but can be avoided if you just help patients feel their causality.

Patients are more eager to follow the plan if they are sure about its goals and workflow. And the more specific and bespoke goals are set, the more fluent and trustworthy the cooperation is. You can see this attitude succeeds while looking at fitness apps that enable users to set their goals (for example, losing 11 pounds in 2 months, exercising twice a week). And then, their trainer gives an example of, let’s say, two diets to choose to achieve the goal. Suppose any changes are introduced (like, well, sister’s wedding coming soon, how can I refuse a piece of cake? Or maybe two…), we can adjust the diet according to the goals. It keeps a user constantly motivated, not only at the very beginning.

With such simple gamification features, you can help your patients develop healthy habits, increase their engagement, and achieve better medical treatment outcomes.

Read also: AI in the fitness industry

Patient engagement solutions – key takeaways

Patient Engagement Solutions aims to open the door to discussion between a patient and healthcare organizations. As a result, patients are able to schedule and pay with mobile apps, consider what kind of treatments they would like to start and keep informed about the status of the course and their health condition. Based on this information, there are plenty of new strategies revolving around risk mitigation showing up. In those challenges, we should spot that modern technologies improve customer experience. Better patient engagement means higher satisfaction with the services you provide, which translates directly to reputation management.

 This satisfaction influences your business. Implementing patient engagement software raises issues such as minimizing the number of no-shows, widening the offer thanks to understanding patients’ behavior and foreseeing what other treatments can be helpful one day, building patient loyalty, envisioning marketing strategies, and receiving constant feedback. To make this dream come true, you have to obtain a solid urge to communicate with a patient in a simple, goal-oriented, and data-driven way. 

Digitalization of most (even these traditional) services is just a matter of time. And the winners are those who adopt new technologies swiftly.