Patient Engagement Boosted by Over 80 Percent With Technology, Says Beroe Inc

Publisher: The Insight Partners

Biometric measurement devices have shown to be the most useful in patient engagement at a rate of 85 percent. Patient engagement tools allow for better predictive analytics around patient health and more timely intervention thus avoiding the cost of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

In most countries, patients have little consumer choice in the frequency and type of medicines to take as mostly, doctors make the decisions. The vast majority of patients do not switch brands if the prescribed therapy yields satisfactory results, therefore the initial choice of the drug is crucial. Branded drug manufacturers focus marketing efforts on physicians: their sales representatives discuss product claims and clinical evidence and often distribute samples. According to a study by the European Commission, the continuous growth of perindopril's patient base is due to the existence of the growing group of loyal doctors.

Technologies that are patient-centric are found to be most effective in patient engagement as they support patients in efforts to be healthy and provide input to providers on how patients are doing when not in the clinic. Interactive voice response calls, emails, texts, letters, mobile app medication reminders, and one-on-one pharmacist outreach and consultation are being adopted to aid patient adherence. Reasons for abandonment in patient engagement include Health care team/health system-related factors such as lack of knowledge and training in treatment management and/or an inadequate understanding of the disease.

Use cases of technology tools for patient engagement can be improved by focusing on technologies that provide better integration between technology and organizational engagement strategies, allow tighter integration with clinical workflows, are easier-to-use. Future areas of focus for patient engagement technology companies are easier to use products (50 percent), integration with clinical workflows (50 percent), more effective products (28 percent), promote value to patients (27 percent), promote value proposition to payers (26 percent), and lower-cost products for 21 percent.  

Smart pills feature a sensor inside of the pill that sends a signal when the medication is ingested. The smart pill works by transmitting a message from the pill's sensor to a patch, which then sends the information to a smartphone application. Socioeconomic related factors affecting patient engagement are social vulnerability to not taking medications, family conflicts, memory difficulties in older patients, Polypharmacy, and denial of the severity of disease in adolescents. Major players in the health care world achieve great success with mobile messaging to drive awareness education on gaps in care (60 percent increase in preventative screenings) or increase renewal rates (74 percent increase in renewal program rates). Virtual assistants supported by chatbot solutions and AI that aid in daily assistance for patients as well as facilitate monitoring of the patients. Adherence education, multidisciplinary care, training in monitoring adherence, and more intensive intervention by increasing the number and duration of contacts can improve patient engagement.

Patient access suppliers are shifting their focus to improve efficiency in problem-solving, and to be multi-specialty and multi-national organizations. Suppliers are trying to become a one-stop-shop service provider by various collaborations and partnerships. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are currently leveraging AI solutions for chronic disease management in the areas of cancer and diabetes. The current machine learning initiatives of the top biopharmaceutical companies show their growing interest in mobile coaching solutions, personalized medicine, and the adoption of technologies for drug discovery purposes.