HEALTHCARE
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feel best suits their healthcare needs will become a key part of successful remote care services. This means that healthcare providers will need to be able to offer a range of such communication channels for their patients to access, from simple voice, email and SMS to new digital channels such as video, live chat, chatbot and even social media services in some circumstances.” AI-complemented, personalised healthcare services delivered at scale is another growing trend, Dave adds. “Digital healthcare patients will increasingly experience a more personalised, individually tailored healthcare service plan that is unique to their needs, their personal profile and other diverse characteristics,” he says. “The key to unlocking this personalisation at scale will be the incorporation of AI into the patient experience. When AI and data are combined with the power of, say, a cloud-based digital contact centre, healthcare providers will have an opportunity to adapt a range of existing and new healthcare services to what individual patients need and will respond to. “An example of this personalisation in action could be found in those suffering from chronic illnesses. A patient with high blood pressure could be on a healthcare plan of diet, exercise and medication. This patient could be monitored by a digital wearable, whose data is fed into an AI-based workflow specifically for chronic illness patients that determines daily activity and goals. The workflow could notify the patient over a chatbot or SMS and suggest an increase in movement or activity as well as taking medication, or a recognition of reaching goals in a gamification-style reward-play. “Because this engagement with patient is unique to them, with tailored goals and tasks, the patient is more likely to respond and adhere to guidance than some impersonal, general leaflet or website. Additionally, this is digitally delivered, and done at scale, at a far higher level than could be done with human- clinical resources alone – alleviating resource pressure on healthcare organisations but assisting patients individually.” Conversations needed With these developing trends, there are plenty of opportunities for resellers. “Resellers, system integrators and managed services providers need to speak in a new language to articulate the value of new digital solutions with the healthcare audience,” says Dave. “The role of the technology vendor is to provide them
with scripts, knowledge and understanding of the pain-points so that resellers are fully equipped to have these conversations. “Technology vendors should work with the partner to develop the use cases and demonstrate what is available for each customer and ensure that they are jointly attending industry events to reach the right audiences. “Another important conversation partners should be having with customers is that, with the right technology partner, customers can achieve innovation without disruption through the benefits of cloud whether on-premises, fully public cloud or hybrid. Not all contact centre vendors offer this flexibility currently.”
Future opportunities There will be further opportunities for
Dave O’Shaughnessey healthcare practice leader
resellers in the future. As Dave notes, there is still a large vacancy rate in NHS England – about 133,000, according to NHS Digital figures in 2022 – but rising demand for health services. “People are living longer but not necessarily healthier lifestyles and, as they age, their healthcare needs change,” he says. “The number of people living with long- term conditions is set to increase, with more individuals managing multiple conditions. So, the demands on healthcare services are going to continue to increase, while the resources to deliver those services is struggling to recruit sufficiently to meet the demands. “Therefore, if there is any way to help healthcare organisations deliver those services in a timely fashion, avoiding frustrating delays and wasting time, then we help the patient in accessing care services as well as the teams delivering those services. The overall modernisation and digital transformation of healthcare can’t be about taking the old workflows and processes and simply digitising them without trying to evolve them smartly by trying to get the best out of new technologies and applications, integrating and interoperating software and services to transform healthcare, otherwise we may unfortunately be just digitising the frustrating, slow problems we previously had. “So, there are wonderful opportunities to be a part of transforming healthcare for the benefit of those who deliver and access healthcare services. But those opportunities will be only available to those who can network, discover and then build new relationships into new contacts in healthcare services, the ones who are at the coalface of the enormous challenges they face today.”
avaya.com
Digital healthcare “
patients will increasingly experience a more personalised, individually tailored healthcare service plan that is unique to their needs, their personal profile and other diverse characteristics.
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