Patient Engagement Volume Increases 450%, LifeLink Technology Now Automating 850,000 Conversations per Month

• Conversational AI Platform on Track to Exceed 10 Million Patient Interactions per Year

LifeLink announced that its technology platform is powering more than 850,000 conversations per month, putting it on track to surpass 10 million automated patient interactions per year across a broad range of healthcare workflows at large hospital and pharmaceutical customers. The 2020 engagement volume represents a 450% year over year increase from 2019.

The jump in engagement was driven by a combination of an increased customer base, expanded capabilities, and a broader industry shift to virtual care driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Major hospital systems, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and healthcare services organizations now use LifeLink conversational solutions to automate complex, interactive engagements with patients.

“Conversational AI was on a great growth trajectory in healthcare prior to 2020,” said Greg Johnsen, CEO of LifeLink. “Our technology was in place helping big organizations make significant improvements in the way they use mobile technology to interact with patients. Then COVID-19 struck, and the need to drive virtual care adoption became urgent. The growth is an indicator of a new, permanent shift to conversational AI as an integral part of the long-term innovation strategy in healthcare.”

The key to sustained engagement is through smart, long-arc interaction journeys that infuse conversational AI with patient data from customer systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and customer relationship management software (CRMs). In 2020, the LifeLink platform exchanged more than 34 million messages through integration with customer systems of record to enable personalized, HIPAA-compliant patient communications.

The LifeLink platform supports a broad range of common, but complex healthcare workflows that can be configured to each customer’s specific operations. Scheduling, education, intake, screeners, referrals, and appointment reminders are the primary solutions driving the conversational volume. Patients have responded well to the technology, as the digital assistants average extremely high (92%) patient satisfaction across all deployments.

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Pioneering New Conversational AI at Major Hospital Systems

LifeLink’s rapid configuration capabilities resulted in several pioneering, successful rollouts in 2020. These were instrumental drivers of the overall increase in conversational volume.

• Jefferson Health announced it had automated the screening and intake process, using LifeLink chatbots.  Appointment requests outperformed online forms by 150%.
• Banner Health reopened its network of 300 clinics with new virtual waiting room chatbots to automate appointment reminders, intake forms and remote check in processes.
• Memorial Health System announced it had selected LifeLink to provide virtual waiting room capabilities across its ambulatory network.
• Baptist Health System rolled out a first of its kind digital assistant to help patients discharged out of the ED schedule follow up appointments with their doctors.
• Several hospital systems and universities deployed COVID-19 screeners chatbots to handle spikes in demand and support safe reopening of facilities.

Accelerating Phase 3 Clinical Trials for COVID-19 Vaccines

LifeLink technology has also been deployed as the front line, mobile scheduling solution for more than 50,000 trial participants in Operation Warp Speed Phase 3 vaccine trials. As eligible individuals screen into the trial, LifeLink-powered chatbots help them schedule their first office visits at dozens of participating trial sites around the nation.

On average, participants were able to schedule their visit less than 3 minutes after screening into the trial, compared to the industry average of 5 days. During the enrollment peak periods, thousands of participants were interacting with LifeLink digital assistants to schedule office visits on a daily basis.

“There are a number of very important trials that are underway as the pharmaceutical industry raced to find safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines,” added Johnsen. “The need for warp speed has been well documented and we are now seeing the results. LifeLink conversational AI has been deployed on not just one, but two of the major Phase 3 trials, which we’re very proud of.”

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Rapid Expansion of Virtual Intake to Support Broad Scale Vaccinations

The LifeLink virtual waiting room solution has been configured to help the healthcare industry handle ongoing COVID-19 screening, testing, and the vaccination programs that will expand in 2021. The FDA estimates that 462 million vaccine doses will need to be administered in order to achieve the necessary herd immunity to get the virus under control and conversational digital assistants will play a role in scaling up to meet the unprecedented demand.

“While 2020 was a challenging year on multiple fronts, one silver lining is that it forced rapid change on a fairly entrenched innovation mindset,” added Johnsen. “Virtual care is here to stay because it proved how valuable smart, engaging technology can be with patients, especially in times of crisis. We are fortunate and proud to be part of the wave of change that will make healthcare better and more efficient, which is a win for everyone.”

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