Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) announced today that it is collaborating with MedChat to integrate live chat services into its Patient Navigation Manager.
Amsterdam-based Philips’ collaboration with MedChat aims to utilize the live chat and AI-powered chatbot services to help improve call center efficiency and increase the speed at which patient inquiries are resolved, according to a news release.
The combination enables Philips customers in North America to create automated communication workflows that function alongside patient access and call center operations, while hospital and outpatient clinics can now digitally navigate patients from the time an order is placed to when it is scheduled and completed through follow-up.
Patient Navigation Manager uses HIPAA-compliant SMS, email and voice messages to automatically guide patients through their care journey, offering them the ability to perform complex tasks by linking directly with live agents using MedChat’s advanced chatbot features.
MedChat’s natural language processing (NLP) reads and understands patients’ messages and its machine learning algorithms adapt over time to provide the most relevant information, creating a symptom checker and triage bot that is now embedded in Patient Navigation Manager’s core communications technologies.
“Philips continues to demonstrate our ongoing commitment and leadership in patient management and engagement with fully integrated solutions into our suite of smart connected imaging systems,” Philips GM of Precision Diagnosis Solutions Brent Berthy said in the release. “By combining MedChat’s technology with Philips Patient Navigation Manager, we can help healthcare enterprises deliver streamlined diagnostic workflows that meet the quadruple aim of better patient outcomes, enhanced patient and staff experiences, and lower operational costs due to the elimination of burdensome manual outreach task.”
The company noted that the latest collaboration represents a similar effort to its partnership with openDoctor that seeks to integrate real-time patient self-scheduling capabilities into the Patient Navigation Manager.
“Philips Patient Navigation Manager does a great job helping providers communicate with patients while improving outcomes, while MedChat helps make that HIPAA-compliant conversation two-way, real-time, and an enhanced experience,” MedChat Founder & CEO Matt Yagey said. “We are excited to bring our integrated solution to Philips customers and also see an enormous need for Patient Navigation Manager among our hundreds of customers.”