CHICAGO — During the Patient Engagement Forum at HIMSS Global Conference on Monday, Aaron Miri, senior vice president and chief digital and information officer at Baptist Health, highlighted how digital officers can influence healthcare and the importance of listening, respecting and engaging with patients to improve results for all stakeholders. 

"Listen to what your consumers want, what your patients want, and what your physician and practitioners want, and put digital solutions that can actually make sense in play," Miri said. 

Engaging digitally will allow providers to understand patients' and consumers' backgrounds, language preferences and specific needs, Miri said. 

Miri said the digital ecosystem consists of three pieces that should be used in unison: consumer components (health records, devices and apps), an information layer (data management) and technology infrastructure (automation platforms). 

"Put all of this together and you get that seamless patient experience," Miri said. 

Still, providers need to know how patients want to engage and adhere to those demands.

"We're dealing with a confluence of issues – economic uncertainty, demographic changes," Miri said. "There's a consumer expectation of being able to use TikTok and all these different consumer tools to communicate."

Health systems have to learn how to engage with each generation and provide patients and consumers options to connect using a variety of platforms.

"There's an intrinsic aspect to having technology like this in your hospitals and healthcare delivery systems. Patients want this. The next generation expects it," Miri said. 

Still, providers need to make sure that the tools they use not only make sense for their patients but adhere to a code of conduct to ensure trustworthiness among consumers.

"We have to make sure the datasets that we have are representative of all, [and] are equitable. We have to make sure that as we look at new therapies, new regimens, we don't inadvertently discount a minority population in any which way," Miri said.  

"AI is here. Large language models are here to stay. Conversational AI, the dawn is now. [...] We're at the tipping point of when this becomes reality."

Mark Zandi will offer more detail in the HIMSS23 session "Keynote: Are More Turbulent Times Ahead for Healthcare? An Economic Outlook (Part One)." It is scheduled for Friday, April 21 at 8:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. CT at the West Building, Level 3, Skyline Ballroom, room W375.