AI & Digital Front Door Technology
How AI Digital Front Door Technology Drives Patient-Centered Care and Operational Efficiency
AI-powered digital front-door technology helps patients determine what their medical needs are, where to find the care they need, and subsequently aids with scheduling. This technology creates a better patience experience, and frees up valuable provider resources. Our panelists Stefan Behrans, Co-Founder and CEO of GYANT, and David Fletcher, AVP of Telehealth Geisinger, discuss the challenges of this new technology as well as the opportunities.
The typical patient consumer experience still has a lot of room for improvement. Patients attempting to initiate healthcare quickly get confused as to whom they should reach out to. This confusion is often exacerbated with lower healthcare literacy. Patients do not know how to “triage themselves.”
The solution? AI technology. Digital front doors can help direct patients, and AI can aid in creating a usable platform. Nonetheless, there are two main concerns/ challenges regarding the technology:
There’s a gap between when a patient finds out about a tool that’s available and when they need it. Our goal is to socialize the patient in using the front-door technology, so in the near-present and future, should they have a medical issue they would naturally use the tool. This better aids the patient in selecting what healthcare services are right for them with their present issue.
Another challenge is patient health care literacy and comfort. The Geisinger front-door utilizes a natural-speech chatbot to help guide users. “It’s not always building new tools or apps - sometimes it is just helping guide patients to existing functionality,” David Fletcher explains. The chatbot helps direct patients to scheduling and billing resources. It also aids in directing users through self triage, using symptom questions so that they are directed to the best care for them. This approach allows the patient to “partner” with the technology.
As well as a better patient experience, “front door” technology increases operational efficiency. Nurses can focus on patient care and not scheduling. Fewer patients are directed to the ER. Providers and staff are able to focus on care, complex needs, and thrive, likely with reduced burnout.
Behrans outlines the vision of AI assisted digital front door technology: “Ideally [it is] an experience that is tailored to you and remembers your preferences and takes into account your prior medical history, your care team, and maybe other social determinants that put obstacles in your path to get healthcare. Especially for those that have lower health literacy, we want to make sure that it's not an overwhelming or intimidating experience, but one that is as delightful and easy as possible.”
Watch the session to learn more…
Watch the panel:
In a rush? Jump to it:
0:10 -Patient Experience, a digital front door, and introductions
2:45 -Patients are increasingly expecting digital, integrated, and easy access to healthcare
4:04 -Business objectives: new customer acquisition, satisfaction, and patient routing to protect resource deployment
7:24 -The patient consumer experience and the healthcare journey - the challenges to solve
10:09 -A look at the “digital front door” of Geisinger Health
12:53 -Intro to the chatbot and virtual triage solutions
16:06 -The bigger vision: helping patients and helping providers : technology as “a longitidinal patient experience”
17:46 -The initial results at Geisinger Health (implemented during 2020)
20:41 -Takeaways and lessons learned
22:27 -Next Steps
The Panel:
Stefan Behrens, PhD
Co-Founder and CEO
GYANT
Co-founder and CEO of GYANT, Stefan Behrens, MBA, Ph.D., established the company in 2016. GYANT was founded on the idea that there must be a way to make healthcare easier for patients and make people better. GYANT's empathic, intuitive virtual assistant guides patients through the complexity of their healthcare systems. With a background in entrepreneurship and strategy consulting, Stefan previously served as co-founder and COO of Invincible Brands, in addition to having spent a decade driving large-scale transformation programs for international telco companies; most notably, guiding multiplayer gaming company Aeria Games to an acquisition by ProSiebenSat.1, Europe's leading media company.
David Fletcher, MBA
AVP of Telehealth
Geisinger
David Fletcher, MBA, Associate Vice President of Telehealth at Geisinger, has worked for 20 years in the healthcare industry. He currently oversees all facets of telehealth and the eICU program with 55 employees serving Geisinger’s 11 hospital campuses and more than 50 community clinics and 15 urgent care clinics, which serves more than 2 million residents in Pennsylvania. Mr. Fletcher is responsible for managing all clinical, technical, business and regulatory activities around telehealth, while also developing and implementing new telehealth programs. During his time in this role, the program has seen growth in telemedicine usage of over 200 times previous volumes and secured $4.2 million in grant funding to purchase equipment and expand the program. In July 2020, the program was recognized as the #1 National Telehealth Network at the Teladoc National Telehealth Innovation Forum.
Mr. Fletcher holds a BS degree in Economics and Finance from Arkansas Tech University and Master of Business Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. His experience also includes thirteen years helping lead the telemedicine program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and serving on a volunteer basis as the Treasurer for the Society for Education and the Advancement of Research in Connected Health for the past two years.
