Generative AI’s Role in Enhancing Patient Engagement and Continuity of Care

The generative AI is now a significant catalyst for rapid digital transformation in the healthcare sector. The promise of this technology as it advances, is that it will play a transforming role in patient engagement and providing more personalized, continuous care. Recent studies have pointed to the generative AI’s potential in healthcare indicating the future where patients will no longer be recipients of healthcare services, but instead an engaged partner on their care journey.

A New Frontier in Patient Engagement

A recent paper published by McKinsey & Company finds that majority of healthcare leaders (more than 70%) are investigating or have already deployed generative AI capabilities (Lamb et al., 2024). The enthusiasm behind this comes from the powerful ability for generative AI to change how patients and patient interaction occurs. What if AI powered virtual assistants that provide things like empathetic, human like interactions to help navigate through complex care plans or respond to questions regarding their health? Personalized such tools can make patients stay engaged in their health by offering them relevant and timely information to stay adherent with their treatment and also remind them about their appointments.

Additionally, generative AI tools understand and predict patient needs. As an example, AI-powered chatbots can read through patient histories to suggest advice that is more proactive and specifically ‘curated’ to an individuals circumstances, immediately improving how someone feels like they’re being truly looked after. So whereas this shift to more of a personalized approach can increase patient satisfaction and improve outcomes.

Personalization at Scale

Generative AI is the ability to process and analyze massive health data, and the essence of patient engagement is personalization, which generative AI can give you. Because of these AI models, healthcare providers can use them as tools to generate insights on how to give treatment recommendations for each patient who is unique. By including AI in Electronic Health Records (EHR), clinicians can receive data-based suggestions on how to make better decisions and for related patients.

Finally, generative AI brings together diverse healthcare entities into collaboration. According to the survey, 59 percent of healthcare organizations utilizing generative AI are undertaking it through partnerships with third party vendors to deliver custom solutions (Lamb et al., 2024). By joining these collaborations, we can develop tools that help with continued patient engagement, including continuous health monitoring and tailored care plans, when and where you want.

Addressing Challenges to Drive Adoption

Generative AI adoption on the road is not an easy task. Although healthcare leaders express concerns about the technology's risks, including the possibility of incorrect or biased outputs that could harm patient outcomes (Lamb et al., 2024), there exists very limited research regarding how errors in these AI systems can be captured, analyzed, and even prevented. Overcoming these hurdles means governance, risk management and regulatory compliance. To build trust among our patients and providers, building robust frameworks to make sure AI will be used ethically and safely is going to be critical.

There is also the need for huge investments and technological infrastructure. Still, nearly half of organizations (41%) that are not using AI as yet are planning to acquire ready-made solutions from the shelf, and yet tech readiness concerns continue (Lamb et al., 2024). These challenges draw attention to the need of adopting an integrated approach to AI that begins from non critical domains and gradually expands to the core clinical domains as expertise and infrastructural maturity increases.

A Future of Seamless, Patient-Centric Care

By being more patient centric, Generative AI is redefining the future of healthcare. It allows providers to better focus on patient care by being able to automate administrative tasks and give immediate clinical support. In addition, AI's use in improving the administrative efficiency guarantees that the patient receives a pleasant journey from visiting to undergoing the follow-ups.

However, as generative AI technology continues to evolve, generative AI is likely to become a highly desired part of shaping a more vibrant and engaged and connected healthcare experience. AI promises to personalize interactions, increase responsiveness, and continuum of care.

Generative AI is not a technological development; it is a tool that can radically change how patients are engaged and how continuity of care can be maintained. The healthcare industry is at the tip of the spear of this transformation, and next year’s decisions are likely to determine how AI will help make healthcare more humane, more accessible, and more efficient.

References

Lamb, J., Israelstam, G., Agarwal, R., & Bhasker, S. (2024). Generative AI in healthcare: Adoption trends and what’s next. McKinsey & Company.