Remodeling approach to care…
– Ambati Venu, Managing Director, Abbott India Limited
Tomorrow’s world of patient care will be different and much more efficient than today. It is no surprise that Artificial Intelligence marketing strategies will impact, and to a large extent are already impacting, the way we in the healthcare industry, do business. The use of artificial intelligence in marketing will benefit the researchers, doctors as well patients – from faster discoveries, faster clinical results, quicker and accurate diagnosis, to a personalized consumer experience. Artificial intelligence has unimaginable possibilities. How do we tap it?
A recent Capgemini study highlighted the vast implementation of AI solutions by companies from various sectors, and emphasized that AI has already transformed their traditional way of business, managing customer relationships, and has helped inspire ideas that fuel innovation. For healthcare, this would mean a revolutionary change in patient care.
We all have used the Google’s AI-powered predictions for location mapping; tapped on Siri/Cortana to ask the latest movie timings – the world is witnessing rapid change through AI. For healthcare – solutions that can help stakeholders across the value chain will benefit, and technologies such as AI will help reduce adverse drug reactions, drug-drug interactions, the time-to-market, improve diagnosis and patient experiences. Amid shrinking pipelines, and the ever-elusive need to reduce the time to market products, we in the pharma industry are running a race with time. In such a scenario, technologies are a crucial fulcrum that will propel a quicker, efficient growth.
Near-future AI marketing interventions
With a patient-centric approach, marketers in the healthcare industry are on the lookout to maintain genuine patient relationships that drive long-term reputation and trustworthiness. Considering this, AI solutions that better treatment approaches, provide and securely manage copious patient data, backed by affordable and accessible analytics, will open up possibilities of personalizing consumer experience.
In the near future, AI would bring in changes at several levels, noticeably:
– Personalized healthcare solutions: AI is gradually changing the problem-solving approach for healthcare – be it at the patient or the caregivers end. With AI-led solutions, it is now possible to identify the crucial interventions in the clinical journey basis cohort-studies. Medical data is currently being tested to reflect the clinical performances of systems. AI algorithms are already being tested that optimizes dosage forms in real time according to patient’s lifestyle. Along with accurate and quicker clinical outcomes, analytics from cohort studies will help to design the elusive “individualized” healthcare solutions for patients. IBM Watson has been providing support across the continuum of care and will change the paradigm of clinical decision making with individualized solutions.
– Improving health outcomes: AI and such cognitive technologies will continue to expand in the augmentation of clinical decision making from reading scans to improving outcomes through better treatment decisions. We have also seen its application in predicting risk factors, ensuring better compliance, and avoiding adverse reactions. Through a dedicated Service + Pill ecosystem, we would be able to improve patients’ adherence to treatment and also provide real-time treatment options for better health outcomes.
Innovations galore…
As a patient-centric pharma company our mission is to help people lead a healthier and fuller life. Innovation is at the center of most things that we do at Abbott and AI marketing will definitely help us in this journey. Imagine using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa for ordering medicine without human intervention? Or having an AI-powered bedside virtual assistant for patients that can answer their queries?
The future of having customer bots for filtering medical data or renewing prescriptions are not far away. Along with a smooth customer experience, such solutions will ensure timely refilling of Rx and improve adherence rates in patients. In areas with a poor access and lacking healthcare systems, AI virtual bots will be able to provide basic healthcare information and guidance. In a country like India, this will help solve the major issues of timely accessibility and monitoring of patients in the long run.
While there have been some concerns over how AI may affect human workforce and the security of patient data, we need to understand that AI augments human interventions. Let’s use it not only to take over complex, time-consuming tasks, but also to ensure efficiency and for shortening the patient journey from diagnosis to treatment and compliance. AI solutions must be able to ensure patient data security, only then we will be able to use it to the fullest.
We have some AI-led times ahead!