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Improving Patient Engagement in Healthcare with 3 IT Strategies

by iSphere on May 9, 2025 in Blog, Healthcare IT Solutions

When it comes to their health and wellbeing, people want more than an attentive bedside manner. They want to feel confident in the quality of their treatment, informed about their health, and empowered to make decisions. And when they feel they’re being underserved, many consumers aren’t afraid to take their business elsewhere.

For example, Bandwidth discovered that 44.3% of patients are “likely or extremely likely to walk out the door” if you aren’t connecting with them through their preferred communication channels. A Northeastern University survey found only about 40.1% of the public trust hospitals and clinicians.

All this is to say that there’s an opportunity to explore patient engagement in healthcare. Healthcare leaders recognize this truth (72% want to improve consumer experience, engagement, and trust in 2025), and are eager to use technology to realize their full potential.

To help healthcare organizations meet the moment, here are the technology solutions we believe can transform patient engagement and build lasting trust in 2025.

Artificial Intelligence

AI scribes save doctors an hour each day at their keyboards, medical imaging is enhancing diagnostic accuracy, and predictive dynamic deployment is anticipating where EMTs will be needed. One in five consumers are even receptive to using GenAI as a doctor’s assistant. Patient engagement is another easily justifiable in for healthcare leaders.

One major area of impact is personalized communication. HIPAA-compliant artificial intelligence can create customized outreach campaigns that incorporate electronic health records to increase appointment scheduling and reduce no-shows. There’s even a possibility of using data about doctor visits, patient interactions, and the success of past outreach efforts to determine who will miss medication or delay urgent care.

Another opportunity is to help patients stick to their treatment plans. The University of Pennsylvania has already seen success with this AI use case by implementing their Penny chatbot. The tool was trained to send daily communications to patients with gastrointestinal cancers receiving oral chemotherapy, confirming their medication plan and gauging their side effects. If there was any cause for concern, Penny alerted clinicians to follow up ASAP.

The challenge is implementing AI engagement solutions that are current with regulatory frameworks as well as ethical considerations. Tools must comply not only with HIPAA but also with evolving guidance from agencies like the FDA, which is actively developing frameworks for software as a medical device (SaMD). Meanwhile, state-level privacy laws like California’s CCPA and CPRA add another layer of scrutiny, especially when AI systems handle sensitive patient data.

Robotic Process Automation

Though artificial intelligence is getting more attention these days, there’s still value to robotic process automation (RPA) solutions. Routine and repeatable tasks are better delegated to RPA than the emerging AI agents since the rules-based systems are far more cost-effective from an energy and cost standpoint.

Look no further than how leading-edge hospitals still use this technology. Samsung Medical Center incorporated RPA into a multifaceted solution that helped to lower hospital wait times from two hours for manual processing to five minutes for automated processing. Cleveland Clinic highlights their creation of an RPA bot to handle smoother patient discharge, streamlining a potential point of frustration or confusion.

Organizations looking to get value from their RPA solutions first need to painstakingly map out workflows and prepare for most possible scenarios, unexpected events, or even errors. This requires a strong command of process mapping, data management, and programming. With the right planning and governance, RPA can streamline patient interactions from start to finish to give higher-value patient interactions.

Telehealth

Sometimes, receiving quality care from the comfort of your home can be reassuring. The pandemic demonstrated telehealth was not only possible but preferred in some circumstances. Consumers value the convenience, quick access to care, and the ability to discuss conditions that are covered by telehealth visits.

While telehealth solutions are still growing, there’s significant appetite among consumers for expanded virtual care options. In Deloitte’s 2025 Global Health Care Outlook survey, 76% of C-Suite executives indicated the shift toward home care delivery will have a moderate or significant impact on their 2025 strategies.

Their solution? Invest in virtual care delivery capabilities. For example, a J.D. Power study found that some of the largest gaps in the customer experience are in reviewing medication options and chronic care. Rethinking interactions as well as adopting user-friendly platforms can potentially close these gaps in patient experience. Your organization can:

Provide patients with reminders in advance to review materials that can make the appointment more efficient
Offer access to digital whiteboards within telehealth platforms that make conversation and explanations more clear
Encourage patients’ support system to join appointments to ease anxiety and improve outcomes

Telehealth platforms continue to evolve, so we anticipate even more opportunities to enhance the patient engagement experience as time goes by.

From Ideas to Action

While AI, telehealth, and RPA each offer powerful ways to improve patient engagement, they’re not plug-and-play solutions. Integrating these technologies into existing systems—and doing so in a way that’s compliant, scalable, and patient-centered—requires deep technical expertise and a strong strategic vision.

That’s especially true as healthcare organizations face tighter budgets, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and growing consumer expectations.

An experienced IT solutions and staffing partner can help healthcare leaders avoid costly missteps, optimize workflows, and build tech ecosystems that improve the patient experience. As you explore the next generation of engagement tools, don’t just invest in the technology; invest in making patients feel their wellbeing is in good hands.