Discover the intersection of technology and healthcare with expert-backed strategies to enhance patient engagement. This article unpacks the best practices to integrate cutting-edge solutions like auto-texting, patient portals, and AI into patient care routines. Gain valuable insights from industry leaders on making healthcare more accessible and collaborative through innovative tech advancements.
- Implement Auto-Texting Programs for Appointment Reminders
- Include Patients in Product Development
- Adopt Robust Patient Portal Systems
- Deploy AI Agents for Personalized Interactions
- Make Healthcare Accessible with Mobile App
Implement Auto-Texting Programs for Appointment Reminders
In the nearly four years that I have been in my current position, there has been a seemingly never-ending influx of new operating software and patient engagement technology in the healthcare sector. With AI now appearing on the scene, it’s safe to say this trend does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. As our practice has expanded to include multiple clinics across several counties, both our number of patients and providers have grown too rapidly for the front office staff to keep up with day-to-day tasks such as appointment reminders and confirmations.
One tool we implemented to alleviate this demand is an auto-texting program called “Artera.” There are several comparable programs out there, but I strongly recommend incorporating one of them as a patient engagement technology. It connects to our EHR, sending text reminders the moment someone is scheduled and recording the patient’s confirmation response automatically. This way, we know to reach out and reschedule if someone responds that they will not be able to keep their scheduled appointment. It ensures our patients receive these crucial reminders and allows front office staff to focus on the already busy tasks of checking in, scheduling, and assisting patients to keep the providers’ schedules running smoothly.
Additionally, it simplifies managing patient care plans through campaigns. For example, we can remind all our female patients who have not done so to schedule their yearly pap smears and remind Medicare patients who haven’t been seen for a year to schedule their annual physicals. While seemingly a small part of the required technology needed to run a successful healthcare center in the modern world, incorporating a similar patient communication platform to maintain regular patient engagement is one of the best tools you can add to your health tech solutions.
Rebekah Hudson
Telehealth Coordinator, Bluegrass Community Health Center
Include Patients in Product Development
Including patients and their family members in product and feature development is the best way to enhance patient engagement in health tech solutions. This gives the solution engineers invaluable insights into real user needs, ensures that the user experience is intuitive, accessible, and truly impactful, and saves time for the product engineers by reducing iterations and guesswork. We also use multi-modal strategies to ensure patients are aware of the existing technology, educated on how to use it effectively, and empowered to integrate it into their health care journey seamlessly.
Katie Taylor
Co-Founder & CEO, Child Life On Call
Adopt Robust Patient Portal Systems
In our practice, we have adopted a robust patient portal system designed to enhance engagement and empower individuals in their healthcare journey. This personalized portal serves as a one-stop solution for patients, allowing them to access their medical records, view lab results, schedule appointments, and securely communicate with their healthcare providers. By granting patients access to critical information and tools, we aim to make healthcare more transparent, accessible, and convenient.
The portal also integrates features such as automated reminders for upcoming appointments and medication schedules, enabling patients to stay on top of their health needs effortlessly. Educational resources tailored to individual health conditions are another key feature, helping patients make informed decisions and actively participate in their care plans.
We’ve observed a significant improvement in patient satisfaction and compliance rates since implementing this system. By fostering a sense of involvement and control, our personalized portal not only streamlines processes but also builds trust, creating a stronger bond between patients and their care providers.
Dr. Priya Arcot-Joshi
Doctor, Modern Family Medicine
Deploy AI Agents for Personalized Interactions
We’ve found that truly enhancing patient engagement requires moving beyond generic, one-size-fits-all communication strategies. Our best practice centers around deploying AI agents that facilitate personalized, proactive, and contextually relevant interactions with patients.
Our AI agents, operating with strict adherence to HIPAA and other relevant privacy regulations, analyze anonymized and aggregated patient data, including demographics, medical history, past communications, and preferred communication channels. This analysis allows the agents to understand individual patient needs and preferences on a deeper level.
This understanding then informs how the agents can interact with patients. For example:
- Personalized Reminders and Follow-ups: Instead of sending generic appointment reminders, our agents can tailor reminders based on a patient’s preferred communication method (text, email, phone call), preferred language, and even the time of day they are most likely to respond. Post-discharge, agents can proactively check in, offering personalized medication reminders, wound care instructions, or scheduling follow-up appointments based on the patient’s specific procedure and recovery trajectory.
- Proactive Education and Support: If a patient has a chronic condition like diabetes, the agent can proactively provide relevant educational materials about managing their condition, including diet tips, exercise recommendations, and information about support groups. The agent can also anticipate potential questions or concerns based on the patient’s medical history and proactively offer support or connect them with a care coordinator.
- Addressing Health Literacy: Recognizing that health literacy varies significantly, our agents can tailor the language and complexity of information to each patient using plain language explanations, and even offer multimedia resources like videos or infographics to enhance understanding.
- Two-Way Communication: Our AI agents are not just one-way broadcasters of information. They are designed to facilitate two-way communication, allowing patients to ask questions, request information, or schedule appointments directly through the agent. This creates a more convenient and accessible channel for patients to engage with their care team.
By leveraging AI Agents to tailor to individual needs, we build stronger patient-provider relationships and empower individuals to take a more active role in their health journey.
Howard Rosen
CEO, Nova Insights
Make Healthcare Accessible with Mobile App
Our organization is a health insurance provider in South Africa. One of our best practices for enhancing patient engagement through Health Tech solutions is by making healthcare accessible for all of our policyholders. We do this through our TRA Assist mobile app—in partnership with MobiMed. This app reflects our commitment to making healthcare more accessible, as we believe that healthcare is a necessity, not a luxury.
Recognizing the high cost of healthcare in South Africa, we have included access to qualified nurses, who provide 24/7 medical and mental health support. This ensures that our policyholders receive quality care for both general and mental health needs, anytime and anywhere, without the costly doctor’s-consult fees.
The app’s technology integrates with essential health services. For example, through the app’s Medical Health and Trauma Counseling Line, users can access confidential advice from qualified nurses, trauma counseling, and chronic condition support. This approach not only simplifies access to health services but also builds trust and engagement by addressing the holistic well-being of our members.
At my organization, we believe that healthcare should be inclusive, proactive, and easy to navigate, and the TRA Assist app exemplifies this by helping patients have access to the tools and information they need.
Pascale Campodonico
Business Consultant, Total Risk Administrators
