Chatbots are one of the brilliant inventions of humanity. Today, many organizations use chatbots to optimize customer support services and other operational processes. The recent AI improvements make chatbots understand the context of the interactions like humans do. We can say AI is making chatbots virtual humans.
How about healthcare? Can chatbots benefit the healthcare industry?
When we look into the healthcare industry, though there are apps for online consultation, the use of chatbots for patient engagement and interaction is significantly less. We can hardly notice chatbots on the websites of the hospitals. But this trend will soon change, and chatbots will be widely used across the healthcare industry. Recent research shows that by 2028, the global market value of chatbots in the healthcare industry will be more than $431.47 Million. This shows that shortly, there are high chances that we will have a chatbot nurse or a personal medical assistant to continuously monitor, alert, and warn in case of emergencies by monitoring a patient’s vitals 24/7.
If you notice the general roadmap of a patient from booking an appointment to getting treated, there can be many obstacles like having inadequate knowledge on how and when to take medicines, the threshold of emergency hospitalization, waiting for a slot to book an appointment, deciding specialist, etc. This scenario differs for each person depending on the emergency and the health condition. This is where we need something personalized to address every patient’s scenario efficiently. By incorporating Artificial intelligence into the patient’s journey, we can enhance their engagement, build trust, improve patient satisfaction, and treat them better.
Conversational AI in healthcare is increasingly becoming acknowledged as it provides the best possible service focusing on the patient’s requirements and providing detailed one-on-one consultation that doctors wish to give their patients.
According to Market Research Future, approximately 52% of patients obtain their health data through healthcare chatbots, and approximately 36% approve of using healthcare chatbots in treating their patients.
We have compiled this blog to provide an overview of how conversational AI can solve patient obstacles. Let’s begin with the need for chatbots in the healthcare industry, where human experts are trusted more than chatbots.
Why do you need chatbots in healthcare?
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the value of healthcare experts and led us to conclude that there is no alternative for medical professionals. However, Technology, on the other side, notably Conversational AI in healthcare, has the potential to increase the effectiveness of the labor of medical professionals significantly.
What does it have to offer?
Comprehensive platform - Patients today require a comprehensive platform that provides easy access to information, personalized care, and other medical assistance. Conversational AI-powered chatbots are one of the technologies that have the potential to transform the healthcare business completely. It can be designed to cater to specific functions, where it gets the details from the patients and the reason for the appointment.
Saves time and money - Frost & Sullivan reports that deploying conversational AI assistants in hospitals will reduce treatment costs by 50% and increase outcomes by 30-40%.
- Experts estimate that by 2022 the global cost savings of healthcare chatbots will reach $3.6 billion.
- On average, a patient spends roughly 8 minutes on a call to book an appointment, with 30% of the time spent on hold, resulting in an unpleasant experience.
By automating all of the routine activities, conversational AI in patient interaction can save healthcare companies hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.
Better diagnosis - By using chatbots, doctors can have the patient’s complete history before patients enter the consultation room. This will reduce the consultation time and help doctors to diagnose better, resulting in better outcomes.
Monitoring – provides awareness and tracking of users’ behavior, anxiety, and weight changes to encourage the development of better lifestyles and habits.
Anonymity - Chatbots come in handy, especially in sensitive and mental health issues where patients hesitate to get help from medical professionals. Chatbots can alert the patient when the illness reaches a threshold that needs professional help.
Personalization - The level of personalization depends on the specific application. Some applications use patient’s vitals like oxygen level, heart rate, body temperature via mobile sensors, and Patient behavior via facial recognition.
Real-time interaction - Chatbot provides immediate responses, notifications, and reminders for the next check-up, motivating patients to be physically active, etc.
Scalability – Chatbots can react with numerous users, which humans cannot, so they are highly scalable.
Types of Chatbots for the healthcare industry
Admin chatbot: This chatbot can set appointments, shows the availability of doctors, and allows specialists for patients depending on the patient’s condition.
Dental clinic services: This bot showcases all the dental services available and helps patients choose exemplary service.
Chatbot nurse - This chatbot monitors the patient’s vitals continuously and reminds them to take medicines, exercise, or book follow-up appointments/sessions.
Patient profile chatbot- This chatbot maintains all the patient details, from the reason for the appointment to the medicine prescribed. So next time the patient visits, the doctor has the patient’s history; this will help them provide better treatment and avoid prescribing medicines that are allergic to the patients.
Patient feedback chatbot: This chatbot collects valuable feedback from the patients.
Insurance claims and billing chatbot: Often, applying for insurance claims or reimbursement becomes a complex process, and tracking the claim is not easy. This chatbot gives you easy accessibility and visibility, so you can easily apply and track your claim status.
Fitness coach chatbot: This fitness bot provides custom charts and exercises for patients knowing their health conditions. Patients can now be fit with the right exercise and proper diet chart with a fitness coach chatbot.
FAQ chatbot: Provides any information regarding the hospitals and the health conditions.
Chatbots are the best solution for enhancing patients’ total experience. Though chatbots can understand the context of the interactions and provide suitable responses, they cannot be used to perform all activities in healthcare. They should be used to perform activities requiring less care and attention from medical professionals and under the supervision of medical professionals.
How can SAXON help?
At SAXON, we build personalized AI-powered chatbots. Our conversational AI specialists provide consistent user experience and customer satisfaction, accelerating your time to a chatbot with frameworks and solution accelerators.
