Technology Record - Issue 22: Autumn 2021

178 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om I NT E R V I EW Peter Durlach explains how Nuance Communications’ Patient Engagement Virtual Assistant platform is helping healthcare providers to meet patient expectations and deliver the experiences they want BY E L LY YAT E S - ROB E R T S P ersonalisation and convenience are two key characteristics of the modern service provider, and patients are now demand- ing they have these same qualities from their healthcare providers. The 2020 Healthcare Consumer Experience Study from engagement technology provider Cedar found that nearly half of respondents are ready for digital changes such as telemed- icine options (44 per cent), digital forms and communication (41 per cent), and touchless check-in (37 per cent). In addition, 68 per cent of respondents reported that they value a cus- tomised patient experience, with poor digital health experiences causing more than a quarter of patients to change medical providers in 2020. To address these changing expectations, in 2021 Nuance Communications released an arti- ficial intelligence-powered patient engagement virtual assistant platform, which Peter Durlach, chief of strategy at Nuance, says will transform voice and digital experiences across the health- care journey. The platform runs on Microsoft Azure for high reliability, security and performance, and uses intelligent engagement technology trusted by 85 per cent of the Fortune 100 companies worldwide. “By applying intelligent technology to use cases across the patient journey, organi- sations can deliver digital convenience that pro- motes better patient engagement and greater satisfaction,” says Durlach. It also integrates with and extends the capabil- ities of the electronic health record, customer relationship management software and Patient Access Center systems to help healthcare providers modernise their digital patient expe- riences and improve clinical care. “The patient engagement virtual assistant platform can transform the way patients consume healthcare services, by delivering seamless, consistent and unified omnichannel experiences,” says Durlach. “Unlike other solu- tions, Nuance’s technology enables healthcare organisations to deploy a single unified virtual assistant platform to manage patient engage- ment across voice, web, mobile, messenger and internet of things interactions. “No longer do healthcare organisations need to purchase, integrate, deploy and maintain separate siloed virtual assistant systems for their devices to deliver natural, user-friendly and high-performing patient engagement applications that patients love.” Durlach believes that the platform’s holistic approach to powering digital healthcare will overcome many of the issues faced by today’s providers. “By marrying the capabilities of our healthcare experience and the proven omnichannel customer engagement technol- ogy, we can help address the urgent need of providers and patients alike to transform access to, and delivery of, care in the modern age of digital medicine.” Better patient engagement “Organisations can deliver digital convenience that promotes better patient engagement and greater satisfaction”