Behavioral science + AI for hyper-personalized patient journeys
The problem
A regional health system was having trouble getting patients to preventive care screenings. Traditional communication methods were not working and, at the time, we were also heading into the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We needed a way to motivate patients to complete preventive screenings, get vaccinated for COVID-19, and stay engaged with the health system over time.
The projecT
I developed a wide range of content for the health system’s desired patient behaviors, including:
Mammography and well-woman screenings
Chronic condition management behaviors
Patient portal sign-up and engagement
Covid-19 vaccination
Working with a team of PhD-level behavioral scientists, I used evidence-based behavior change tactics in the content design process. I created hundreds of unique behavioral “nudges” and content elements that reflected different motivational techniques, biases and heuristics, social psychology tactics, and more. These messages were delivered to patients through machine-learning models that predicted next best actions for each individual.
The Opportunities
Content design for healthcare nudging requires precision, sensitivity, and extreme accuracy. Opportunities and challenges included:
Deep user research. Considering a wide range of patient obstacles and mental models to create content that could be hyper-personalized at scale.
Journey mapping. Defining the ideal patient experience as they receive and engage with content for different health behaviors over time (and across multiple platforms or modalities).
Applied behavioral science. Creating content that reflected behavioral science “nudging” was a balancing act of defending the user experience while leveraging evidence-based techniques that are proven to change behavior.
The role of AI. Approaching content design with machine learning in mind—and understanding how content would inform ongoing model training.
Content modeling. Creating hundreds of singular content “items” (subject lines, headlines, body copy, CTAs, etc.) that would be reused and put together across mobile, web, email, SMS, and in-app experiences.
The wins
Patient engagement skyrocketed after implementing our content-as-an-intervention program. Click-to-open rates and conversion rates increased by 48% and 33%, respectively, compared with the health system’s past patient communications. Our content also led to 71% percent of patients getting a COVID-19 vaccine. The health system also saw a 63% uptick in patients using their online portal tool, which helped both providers and patients save time, improve outcomes, and increase positive sentiment about the health system.
The “What Ifs”
Looking back, I wish our team could have spent more time exploring the relationship between visual design and content when designing health nudges. I was curious how more visual cues like icons and diagrams might further reinforce the concepts we were trying to convey with words and reduce cognitive load for certain patients. This might have been especially helpful for patients who were managing chronic conditions that required multiple engagements with the health system over time.
