AI in Healthcare: Making Patient Journeys More Human with Mayo Clinic's Joshua Hickey

In the world of healthcare, technology is rapidly changing how we experience care. But are these advancements making things better for patients? Joshua Hickey from Mayo Clinic joined us to talk about how AI and data can actually make healthcare more human-centered, focusing on the patient's needs rather than just screens and complex systems.

Key Takeaways

• Patient Data Over Screens: Mayo Clinic is shifting its focus from what's on a screen to the actual data of the patient. This means listening to what patients need and not making them repeat information they've already provided.
• Context is King: Remembering a patient's history and preferences is vital for building trust and making care efficient. AI can help stitch together information from various sources to create a more personalized experience.
• Simplify Complexity: The goal is to keep the complicated parts of healthcare behind the scenes. Patients should have simple, intuitive experiences, even if the underlying technology is complex.
• Process Before Automation: Before automating a process, it's important to understand and improve the process itself. Automating a bad process just leads to a bad automated process.
• Remembering Patients: Patients expect healthcare systems to remember them and their history. Siloed data prevents this, but a 360-degree view of the patient can change that.
• Personalized Journeys: AI can use data to create personalized experiences, much like streaming services recommend content. This means tailoring information and interactions to individual needs.
• Aligning Tech with Outcomes: Technology development should focus on the entire patient journey and create positive moments, not just isolated features. It's about the complete experience, not just individual parts.
• Incremental Change: Implementing changes, especially with AI, should be done incrementally. Start with low-risk use cases, build trust, and gradually introduce more complex features.

Rethinking the Patient Journey

Joshua Hickey highlights a significant challenge in healthcare: patients often have to repeat their medical history and information at every step of their care journey. This is not only frustrating for the patient but also a waste of time and a potential source of errors. The vision at Mayo Clinic is to move beyond screen-based interactions and focus on the patient's data. By "unleashing the data," they aim to prevent this repetition and make the process smoother.

This data foundation is key. It's not just about the user interface; it's about having access to the right data to generate insights that can truly transform the patient experience. The complexity of healthcare systems needs to be managed behind the scenes, allowing for simple and intuitive patient interactions.

Building Trust Through Context

One of the biggest pain points for patients is the feeling of not being remembered. When a patient interacts with different parts of the healthcare system, they often have to repeat their story. This is where AI and data can make a huge difference. By stitching together information from electronic health records (EHRs), patient preferences, and past interactions, healthcare providers can create a more personalized and trustworthy experience.

Imagine scheduling an appointment. If the system knows you're a morning person or have specific needs like picking up a child from school, it can offer more suitable appointment slots. This level of personalization, driven by data, makes the patient feel understood and valued.

Technology That Truly Serves People

Hickey emphasizes that technology in healthcare isn't just about the product; it's about the people. Often, technology misses the mark when it tries to automate flawed processes. The key is to first understand and improve the underlying process before applying automation. This requires discovery and a focus on aligning processes with human needs, rather than forcing people into old, outdated workflows.

He also points out that many systems, like early EHRs, were built around clinician workflows, not patient needs. Shifting this perspective to prioritize the patient's experience is crucial for creating better healthcare journeys. This means designing around the patient's needs, not fitting the patient into existing clinical workflows.

The Power of Data and AI

AI has the potential to enrich patient experiences by using contextual data. This context includes everything known about a patient, from EHR data to customer relationship management (CRM) information. By activating analytics – using data to inform AI feedback loops and change experiences – healthcare can move beyond passive reporting.

An example of this in action is in clinical trials. By consolidating trial data and making it accessible via APIs, AI teams can improve patient matching. Instead of patients sifting through search results, AI can proactively identify the best trial matches based on their profile, simplifying a complex process. This approach bypasses clunky search interfaces and directly connects patients with relevant opportunities.

Designing for the Entire Journey

As a product leader, ensuring technology development aligns with real patient outcomes, not just organizational goals, requires a holistic view. This means defining the end-to-end customer experience journey and ensuring every use case fits within that context. It's about creating "magical moments" at each step of the journey, much like how Disney designs the entire guest experience, from the ride to the surrounding atmosphere.

Implementing change across the entire patient journey is an incremental process. It involves starting with low-risk AI features, building team maturity and trust in AI, and then introducing more complex applications. The ultimate measures of success are whether patients feel heard, care teams stay aligned, and friction is reduced rather than added.

Ultimately, the goal is to make healthcare more human. By keeping the human in mind – both the patient and the care provider – AI can be introduced in a way that builds trust, simplifies experiences, and supports better health outcomes. Visit https://www.dezyit.com to learn more.