The Human Touch: Balancing AI with Clinical Support at sovaSage
By: William Kaigler– CEO & Co-Founder
It seems, these days, that you cannot turn on the news or read an article without hearing how AI (artificial intelligence) is changing our world. The very topic can raise anxiety and images of the Terminator movies. While those images are based upon a very small cornel of fact, it is also fair to say that they include a large dose of drama, fiction, and exaggeration. The truth is that AI, at it’s core, is an optimization tool. Optimization, particularly, of information exchange.
In our industry, healthcare at large, and specifically in homecare, one critical need is enhanced communication among clinicians, providers, payers, and patients. Can I get an “amen” on that?!
AI serves as a valuable tool in enhancing obstructive sleep apnea patient care. By allowing us to operate efficiently, it enables us to deliver the quality of care we all desire, while remaining cost-effective. With that said, leveraging AI is NOT, in my view, about reducing the human touch involved in good quality care. As a matter of fact, when implemented properly, AI can enhance that human connection. So, now let me turn the page to how we do this, at sovaSage.
When we set out to develop the worlds first digital sleep coach (we call her JeanieTM), we decided to stay true to a few very important principles:
1. Everything that we do should be patient centric.
“Patient centric” means, to us, that everything needs to be simple, intuitive and customized for each patient. If they have a problem, they should receive advice that works for them. That means customizing the coaching and feedback to their performance – and their CPAP equipment. No searching or surfing YouTube for help.
2. Technology must always, first and foremost, be designed to enhance/improve the patient’s experience.
To us this means that any support needs to be offered on the patient’s terms. Help is available when they need it, not based upon some arbitrary calendar and any help should be understandable and targeted.
3. World class clinical expertise must be available to support any troubleshooting process required to support the patient’s needs and ensure the designed clinical outcome.
Lastly, and why I wrote this blog is the human element because, without this, the best technology will fall flat for your OSA patients. We all need human connection, especially when we feel vulnerable. Humans convey empathy, and humans are problem solvers. It is for this reason, that we designed our service to engage, between patient and their coach (not just any coach, but their coach, who they trust) when they have a problem. AI can help identify problems…people solve problems and that is how it works even with JeanieTM.
To learn more about how we can make your staff more efficient and more effective, while improving the quality of care that you can provide AND improving profitability, click here to contact us or email us at info@sovasage.com.
