The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Patient Engagement

Artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to make major headlines as part of the life sciences industry's trifecta of recent technology trends, and it's not hard to see why. Research published by MarketsandMarkets projected that the healthcare artificial intelligence market is expected to grow from $667.1 million in 2016 to more than $7.9 billion by 2022, a compound annual growth rate of 53 percent over the forecast period. This explains why companies such as IBM and Google are dominating advancements as they develop deep learning techniques that can revolutionize the way diseases are diagnosed, treated, and even prevented. However, with AI's success, comes its many challenges. According to Niall Brennan, former chief data officer at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the key challenges related to whether or not artificial intelligence and machine learning gain traction is "translating it into something tangible that will resonate with payers and lead them to think about realigning financial incentives" to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. As healthcare organizations start to focus on consumer expectations in response to rising out-of-pocket costs and value-based reimbursements, providers will need to learn how to personalize the patient experience, reduce unnecessary expenditures, and maintain open lines of communication between office visits to keep patients as healthy as possible.