The healthcare industry is currently facing a crisis. Hounded by criticism of insufficient access to providers and poor bedside manner, skepticism abounds on the part of patients and their families. But with administrative tasks and paperwork at an all-time high, how can healthcare teams find the time to give their patients the attention and information they need?

Fortunately, digital communications have evolved in parallel, with new means for patient contact—from email through texts, apps through social media—developing with built-in security standards and measures. This wave of digital communications is smart to the potential risks of protected health information (PHI), and strives to be HIPAA-compliant wherever possible.

Ensure patients have all the content they need.

Today’s digital messaging lends itself to customization. Choose from emails, SMS text messages, designing your own app, using existing messaging apps (WhatsApp and its peers), social media, browser pages, and more.

From all of these potential avenues, the choice as to which is most appropriate will be clear based on the demographics of the patient population being served. While elderly patients might not be all over Snapchat, this group might tend towards a specific operating system and platform—e.g. the Apple iPhone—which could shed some light on the ideal communication platform to employ with them.

Formatting the materials to fit the platform being used while maintaining universal accessibility is another key consideration. But as the adoption of digital communication continues to grow and the number of solutions expands, these problems will be incurred less frequently.

Leverage AI for one-on-one attention—while saving clinical time.

The knowledge of which specific channels are preferred by patient populations being served can be used to build solutions that enhance the patient experience. For example, if 90% of patients access the provider’s website, a desktop-friendly chatbot could be a worthwhile investment.

Via advances in natural language processing (NLP), chatbots have been evolving to respond more appropriately to input than ever before. For patients, they reinforce an environment where it is not only safe, but even advisable for individuals to ask questions. These patients and their loved ones can get the answers they need without costing themselves or providers any additional clinical time.

Chatbot responses can be programmed to answer frequently-asked questions, as well as escalate potentially troubling scenarios. They can help handle feedback surveys and check-ins for patients who are post-op or who have chronic conditions. In fact, Gartner estimates that by 2020, 85% of consumer interactions will be managed using automated platforms like chatbots.

The form these AI interactions takes is not strictly limited to the written word. This flexibility in format allows accommodations to be made for any disability. People who have trouble seeing can use voice-activated platforms akin to Amazon’s Alexa device, so they can then hear the answers to their questions and use their voices to navigate through their options.

Sustain easy, consistent process automation.

Being able to program chatbots or other response-generating platforms to automatically provide content based on contextual cues ensures that information is delivered where it’s needed, and to resolve the questions patients, caregivers, and family members might have. Automation allows this to happen anywhere; patients are not bound to the clinic in order to resolve their queries, but rather can access the information they need anywhere—including in the privacy of their own homes.

Why not use these advances in the healthcare space to drive patient accountability, allow consistent communication, but also free up providers for situations where one-on-one attention is critical and does not lend itself to automation? Freeing up providers to intervene during emergencies or counsel patients emerging issues could drastically increase the rate of positive outcomes. Routine follow-ups and visits could be expedited, reducing their burden on clinical staff.

In fact, the use of digital platforms allows for the seamless integration of all of these solutions into patient administrations systems. This is how to render those systems the de facto central hub for patient communication and record-keeping. Using surveys to interact with patients also allows information and feedback to be gathered and automatically recorded to patient charts; everything from ‘bad days’ through missed appointments can be easily accounted for without any additional time spent by office staff.

This is a snapshot of where digital communications are currently, but it will only continue to evolve as the general public continues to incorporate these channels further into their lives. The most critical fact to keep in mind is that digital communication is what the public wants. For example, a recent Healthcare Communications survey in the UK found that 68% of patients surveyed wanted to be able to manage everything about their appointments online.

This might seem like a no-brainer as the number of digital consumes continues to grow with increased adoption. However, the fact that individuals are not becoming “burned out” on tech and digital communications but instead are seeking further avenues to implement it in their lives is significant. This bodes well for future implementations.

Staying ahead of the trends and making sure practices leverage the latest technology and communication will not only make sure patients’ needs are met, but will boost their morale and increase the likelihood that they will comply with provider recommendations.

Over the last couple of years, both the concept and the real world application of Virtual Reality (VR) has moved from the fringes of our imagination, into everyday use.

What was once a technology that was considered as only beneficial in computer games and futuristic projects designed never to come to fruition, is now infiltrating many areas of our lives. The military, education, entertainment, fashion, and even engineering are all being touched by the power of VR, but it is the healthcare sector where it is really making waves.

Notably, during the previous 18 months, something of a virtual reality revolution has taken place in terms of health-related applications. We may well still be in the early days of releasing its full potential for patients and medical practitioners, but so far it seems that VR is becoming something of a tangible reality in healthcare.

Here are just some of the pioneering ways that VR has been integrated into the healthcare industry to improve the lives or both patients, and doctors.

Autism Therapy

Around 1% of the global population sits somewhere on the autism spectrum. With no preventative methods, no cure, and little understanding of why it occurs, therapeutic treatments are the only way to help those afflicted. Language and speech therapy can offer significant improvements in an autistic individuals quality of life, but previously this therapy had to be done face-to-face. This posed a number of limitations depending on the location and level of mobility of the individual, and it also means doctors are restricted to practicing in certain geographical areas.

But with VR this doesn’t have to be the case. Some startups have begun to utilize technology to simplify the delivery of therapy to autistic individuals, without the need for travel. Products use VR to create social interactions by creating virtual characters in a digital scene. For example, instead of sitting in a doctors office and looking at toys on a table, the individual will see a panda in a virtual safari park that they can interact with accordingly. Each environment can be specially tailored to include the appropriate sensory environment for each patient- something that is hard to do in ‘real life’.

Virtual surgery

The concept of virtual surgery is being used in both to educate trainee medical professionals, but also to give surgeons a chance to rehearse complex operations before the real thing.

By allowing trainee doctors to conduct medical procedures in a VR situation, their confidence and experience can be built on significantly. Being able to perform a surgical procedure on a virtual patient means they can practice new techniques and skills in a ‘real’ setting, without ‘real’ consequences.

For more experienced surgeons, the ability to walk through a complex or lengthy surgery before having the live patient on the operating table can allow them to deal with a variety of outcomes, as well as to troubleshoot or practice tricky maneuvers.

Chronic Pain

Over 25 million people in the US alone, suffer with chronic pain. These people resort to the long-term use of painkillers and opioids which carry their own risks and contraindications, including addiction and death. As a result, doctors have been searching for a way to provide safer, more effective, and less problematic alternatives as quickly as possible. Virtual reality has been suggested as one way of doing just this and so far studies have show that it can help to reduce pain by around 25%.

Virtual reality therapy has been shown to not only reduce pain in patients, but to stop the brain from processing pain the same way. This can lead to reductions of in-patient time as well as decreased dependency on powerful prescription drugs. By helping to distract the minds of patients in pain, the world of VR can release stress which in turn contributes towards the alleviation of pain. Allowing patients to escape the four walls of hospital or their homes and to swim with dolphins, take a helicopter ride, or play a game of tennis, has a significant impact on their mental and subsequently, physical wellbeing.

Providing visual and motion-based experiences has been found to work in positive ways on several parts of the brain, leading to increased rehabilitation rates and enabling them to live a more normal and less painful life.

Restoring Vision

Vision impairment affects around 150 million people around the world, in varying levels. Whether it is age related or caused by a medical issue or injury, it severely impacts the patient’s ability to live normally.

Low vision is not easily treated with glasses, medicine, or surgery, and until recently, those afflicted had little choice but to learn to adapt. Now, with the use of VR, levels of vision can be increased by allowing the patient to magnify certain objects in a visual scene without losing sight of the rest of the environment. Certain software applications allow users to literally zoom in on certain things without impacting the rest of the ‘scene’. Users are then able to adjust the contrast, text, or ambient level, allowing them to carry out normal activities with more ease.

Care of the Elderly

When dealing with elderly patients, it can be difficult for younger medical professionals to understand the situation and limitations that age imposes on patients. For example, an age difference of 50 years between patient and doctor can create a significant disconnection between the two, resulting in frustration and breakdowns in communication.

VR, however, is helping to change this. By harnessing virtual reality technology, doctors and nurses are able to experience what growing old feels like or what recovering from a stroke is really like. Applications have been created where the user is able to experience life as an elderly person, see the world through their eyes, and experience as realistically as possible, how everything from movement to sight can be severely limited. It is hoped that this kind of experience will bridge the gap between elderly patients (especially those that are non-verbal) and caregivers to increase the level of care offered.

Brain Trauma Recovery

Strokes are one of the leading causes of brain trauma and to stand a good chance of recovery, patients need to start therapy and rehabilitation as soon as possible. In some communities and circumstances however, this is not always possible.

By using virtual reality, patients are able to practice regaining the functions they have lost such as moving their fingers or lifting their arms. Whilst the patients are not actually carrying out the actual movement, the motivation, engagement, and activity of the brain is improved through the use of audio-visual feedback. It is understood that this can lead to significantly improved recovery time for those who have suffered significant neurological trauma and injury.

Medical appointments and doctors’ visits are not enough. Patients want more contact with their healthcare providers, without necessarily needing to schedule more appointments and spend more time in the waiting room. 74% of patients polled in a recent West survey expressed a desire for more communication beyond the medical office visit.

This hunger for more communication parallels the growing role of digital communication in daily life. These same patients note that they are 21% less likely to call their medical providers than they were merely seven years ago. Rather than pick up the phone, patients want to use digital channels—the same ones that they’re already using for other communication—to maintain communication with their healthcare team.

How communications preferences have recently shifted

A recent study by Duke University addresses digital communication in the clinical setting beyond just personal preferences. Their studies found that over 95% of the American population has a cell phone, making it a tool for healthcare providers to leverage. But the standout piece of data, in a world that wonders about deliverability and whether messaging is actually getting through to intended audiences, is that over 90% of text messages are read—and within three minutes of transmittal. This data carries over across all age groups and socioeconomic demographics.

University of Toronto researchers supported this data with their research on the different impacts that text and email have on conveying a particular message. They found that text messaging conferred a higher level of urgency, and therefore function better around task-oriented reminders. Emails are better received than phone calls—19% of millennials don’t even listen to their voicemails—but are better for lengthier context-setting or other more detailed information transmittals.

What provider communications patients currently want between appointments

Patients want contact that aligns with the digital channels that they are using. Social media engagement can be useful for general knowledge-sharing around trends, treatments, and even regulation, but social media is not where the public is hungry for provider engagement. They want personal contact along the two channels they engage with the most each day: texting and email.

Texting

Minimal-to-no onboarding is needed for patients via texting since they are already using this to communicate with everyone from loved ones through coworkers. Consistently greater than five out of every ten patients polled preferred text communication about all logistical aspects of their medical visits, including setting-up and confirming appointments, post-operative instructions, payment issues, and even the transmission of lab results.

The good news is that from 2017 to 2018, the number of patients texting with their providers increased from 5% to 17%. This indicates increased adoption of digital communication channels on the part of healthcare providers. However, this 17% figure is still low, particularly compared to the 69% of patients who explicitly noted the desire to communicate more with their providers.

While HIPAA compliance has been a big obstacle to personalized text message transmission—which might accidentally bleed PHI if providers are not careful—there are simple ways to structure this message to avoid sending over PHI, while still delivering what patients need.

Email

Email can help resolve some longer-term or more complicated issues faced by patients. For starters, email can help add transparency to billing and insurance coverage. Even in advance of visits—and surely after—estimates of treatment costs can be sent, broken down into highly itemized detail. This allows patients to make informed treatment decisions based on what they can afford, or even contest charges with ther insurance companies. Cost visibility and transparency is another way to build trust and rapport with patients, which will reinforce a positive clinical relationship.

Email correspondence is less urgent than text messaging, but still timely and pressing. Because of this, it can be a powerful tool for reminders as well as education. Some patients have chronic diseases, but ongoing education and community-building can be helpful in managing their conditions; this can be achieved through regular emails. Healthy and ill individuals alike can benefit from education regarding disease prevention and wellness, which is easily transmitted via emails.

There’s an additional layer of education inherent to this information sharing, relevant to expectation management. By owning the sharing of reliable medication, a provider helps guide their patients to quality information and thus reduces the likelihood of misinformation. Pointing patients in the direction of useful resources has further benefits by structuring their vocabulary, and conveying the sorts of topics and conditions around which the provider is an expert to be consulted. Rather than bombarding patients with this information during the time of an office visit, this allows patients to absorb information at their own time and pace; office visits, in turn, become more focused around acute conditions as well as examinations and other activities that require face-to-face interaction.

Surveys

This one might come as a surprise, but 53% of patients are open to completing surveys for their healthcare. Surveys help standardize responses and reliably collect answers. While this can also provide statistics that could be useful for research and professional discussions, this can directly and positively impact patients by ensuring they get the appropriate medical response—and quickly, because specific replies can automatically trigger particular pathways and flag providers to take action.

Some health situations work better than others for survey follow-ups. Chronic conditions, new medication, recent procedures, and hospitalizations are some of the common patient experiences where surveys could help track outcomes and make sure providers intervene when necessary.

How healthcare can use automation on these channels to strengthen connections with patients

Patients don’t need to see the details behind the digital solutions put into place; they need to feel the effects of these solutions through the perception that they can reach their providers when needed. And if providers—with schedules already jampacked—are effectively increasing their availability to patients by opening up new lines of communication, something’s gotta give. This is where automation comes into play.

Implementing digital solutions in the health space comes with some upfront set-up and ongoing maintenance, but it also opens the door for the use of tools to automate parts of patient correspondence. These changes create a more positive patient experience, and drive patients to experience partnership with their providers in ways that could encourage their compliance and hence generate better outcomes.

What does this look like? Automate reminders and follow-up surveys to keep patients on track, and use chatbots strategically to help field the easiest and most common questions that pop up. Automation allows for easier, consistent follow-ups with patients after procedures and hospitalization, allowing for earlier interception of any issues. Treatment adherence can be reinforced with automated reminders, without utilizing support team and administrative time.

Using automation frees up provider time for cases that require one-on-one attention, or even generally allows more time for patient consults. Without compromising bedside manner—if anything, enhancing it—providers can increase the amount of support they give to their patients, while freeing up more time of their own.

The healthcare industry has been slow to adopt these new digital communications channels. As a result, providers are missing out on opportunities to connect with their patients and give them the modernized healthcare experience that they seek. Above, we have broken down the key trends in digital communication. We’ve addressed the key directions in which healthcare providers can move in order to stay up-to-date and well-connected with their patients. Even if a comprehensive overhaul of digital communications is not possible, just implementing one of the strategies listed above could go a long way in reinforcing positivity in the provider-patient relationship. Progress is being made constantly to improve security in ways that help ensure HIPAA compliance, and so there really is no reason to abstain from pursuing these trends and giving patients the digital communications experience they’re seeking.

With nearly a million patients affected, the recent ransomware attack on a Michigan healthcare billing services provider continues to cause waves in the industry.  

Close to a million Michiganders are finding that their healthcare information may not be as secure as they thought it was, according to Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel. Unfortunately, the personal health and financial information of these individuals were part of a massive ransomware attack on a third-party subcontractor who prints and mails bills for healthcare organizations in the area. While the attack happened back in September 2018, the far-reaching repercussions are still being identified over six months after the breach occurred. These unlucky individuals are discovering that a vast array of information was impacted, including social security numbers, dates of birth, personal addresses, names, medical information, phone numbers and even information about their insurance contracts. It took nearly three weeks for the contractor, Wolverine Solutions Group, to regain access to their data after the ransomware attack.

Healthcare Organizations Are Often Targeted by Hackers

Due to the high volume of personal, financial and health information available, healthcare practices and associated organizations such as Wolverine Solutions Group are often the target of cyberterrorists. The information that is stored within the vaults of these companies is extremely attractive, both for the data points and the perception that healthcare organizations will pay handsomely to regain access to their crucial healthcare data in the event of a ransomware attack. Ransomware costs American small businesses more than $75 billion per year according to Datto, a staggering sum when you consider that this downtime can result in costs upwards of $8,500 per hour. Ransomware is increasingly becoming a part of the technology landscape, as cybercriminals perceive it to be a relatively easy and untraceable payday due to the rise of anonymous digital currency such as bitcoin.

Was the Record Encryption Strong Enough?

One of the questions that cybersecurity professionals are attempting to answer is whether or not the encryption that was applied to the records was enough to protect the records from the cybercriminals. In the case of ransomware, the Wolverine Solutions lost access to their data for a period of approximately three weeks. During that period, it’s still unclear whether the cybercriminals attempted to break the data encryption — and if they were ultimately successful, where that data might have been shared with others or sold on the dark web. While a security firm brought into investigate initially felt that the attack was strictly focused on gaining ransom money, that has yet to be independently corroborated.

Patient Notification and Next Steps

Patients who were potentially affected are being notified by Wolverine Solutions Group, an expensive and time-consuming process as it requires multiple contact methods and a great deal of support. The organization is also providing complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services for the affected patients, an additional cost that must be considered a part of the loss. These services will all be provided for the period of a year, while patients worry and wait — wondering if their personal health and financial information is in the hands of cybercriminals somewhere in the world. While Wolverine Solutions Group technology leaders note that they are taking steps to ensure that this type of attack doesn’t happen again, this negative publicity has likely affected their business in ways that will continue to be seen for years to come.

While it’s nearly impossible to create a system that cannot be breached, this instance illustrates the importance of having proactive, advanced backup and data protection processes in place. Cybercrime is rampant throughout the world, and there are no businesses that are truly immune from the effects of a major attack. Wolverine Solutions Group is merely the latest in a string of healthcare organizations that suffered from this type of aggressive ransomware attack and join Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and other large healthcare organizations in the growing list of targets.