Northwell Health in New York State has launched a new patient engagement chatbot, which is powered by Conversa‘s conversational AI platform.
Called Northwell Health Chats, the service allows patients to stay connected to their care navigator throughout their recovery.
Reducing Clinical and Staff Burnout with AI Automation
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
Here’s how the tool works: Patients don’t have to download an app to start using the service. Instead, they receive notifications for their chats via email or SMS text message. They click the link in the notification and the chat will start immediately.
Patients are asked how they’re feeling, and each individual’s chat experience is based on their unique health conditions and concerns. Though they’re talking to a bot and not an actual human, all the patient’s responses are sent back to their Northwell navigator. Thus, Northwell Health is able to monitor whether the patient needs additional help through a phone call or office visit.
Most patients get a chat notification once every one to four days.
The health system has deployed Northwell Health Chats in various areas, including radiation medicine for head and neck oncology patients. It plans to bring the technology to other populations as well, such as to colonoscopy patients.
Market Trends to Watch for Health Systems and Their Specialty Pharmacies
The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients.
Currently, a couple thousand patients are utilizing the Northwell Health Chats service, Conversa co-founder Dr. Phil Marshall said during an interview at last week’s Connected Health Conference in Boston.
At the conference, Northwell announced that with the chatbots, it saw 97 percent patient satisfaction and a reduction in post-acute care expenses across a few of its hospitals.
“You can leverage these conversational chats when you’re comfortable doing it,” Sabina Zak, Northwell’s vice president of community health, said in an interview at the conference. “You’re not necessarily constrained by what we can provide as a healthcare system.”
Marshall also discussed the convenience of the feature. “One-third of our conversations are unscheduled,” he said. Even when Northwell doesn’t need to check in on a patient, the user can click on a prior notification to spin up the chatbot and ask any questions. The chatbot can then send pieces of educational information.
Northwell and Conversa started working together on this project more than a year and a half ago, Marshall added. Zak said the idea for the collaboration came from Northwell wanting to use AI conversational chats to engage patients and make relevant information accessible to them.
Back in 2015, Conversa, which focuses on facilitating personalized patient-doctor communication, closed a $2.5 million seed round with angel investors. In 2017, the company secured $8 million in Series A funding led by Northwell Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Northwell Health. Epic Ventures, Healthgrades and others also participated.
Update: This story has been updated with Conversa’s more recent fundraising information.
Photo: monique28, Getty Images