Verint IVA Helps Pharmaceutical Company Extend Patient Support

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The Results

Achieved a 44% program registration assistance rate and 35.3% customer engagement rate
Answers 20,000 diabetes-related questions every month
Provides support for web, mobile web, and smart speaker interactions

The Opportunity: Addressing the engagement capacity gap

A leading global health and pharmaceutical company launched an online educational and support platform created for patients with diabetes and their caregivers. The program focuses on lifestyle advice and medication regimens. Since its launch, the program has evolved and expanded to provide meaningful solutions for patients living with diabetes.

However, one consistent challenge the pharmaceutical company encountered was that website engagement consistently spiked during times that fell outside of normal business hours.

These were times where access to healthcare providers, coaches, and customer care agents was not readily available. This typically occurred in the late hours of the night or early in the morning when people have time to focus on self-care. Recognizing this trend, the company’s digital health innovation team set out to solve this challenge.

As the team explored technology-based options to address this engagement capacity gap, they began to develop the idea of using an intelligent digital assistant to help patients. Finding the right digital assistant, however, was no easy task.

It was essential that the technology always be available and for the digital assistant to have the ability to form empathetic, personalized, and warm connections with patients.

Additionally, the team wanted technology that would enable the ability to communicate in multiple languages, scale across channels, and comply with various legal and regulatory concerns.

The Solution: Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant

Keeping patients and their experiences at the core of its strategy, the pharmaceutical company selected Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant, which is backed by an integrated, modular platform and a robust conversational intelligence system. Equipped with technology able to support patients around the clock, scale service, and draw intelligent insights from real interactions, the digital health innovation team set out to drive positive change in diabetes care and management.

Shortly after selecting Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant, the pharmaceutical company and its marketing, strategic consulting, and compliance partners worked closely with Verint’s professional services team to create an innovative intelligent virtual assistant (IVA). This IVA was designed as a “digital health coach” to build and grow enduring relationships through voice and digital interactions with patients.

The broader teams worked together to create an experience that was rooted in empathy and understanding. Going beyond simple chatbot capabilities, the IVA’s language and design exude compassion, empathy, and trust. These are some of the critical factors that also help the technology form a special connection with those seeking support.

Additionally, the teams addressed the unique challenges within the heavily regulated space of healthcare. They needed to ensure that the IVA was carefully designed to seamlessly work within the company’s existing pharmacovigilance process to mitigate any potential privacy or product safety risk for patients and the organization.

Through numerous product demonstrations, privacy discussions, and content development, the teams effectively addressed legal and regulatory concerns. By designing and enabling key functionality, like pharmacovigilance handling, the teams could ensure that the IVA was ready for any situation or support needs.

After addressing the legal and regulatory challenges, the pharmaceutical company launched the IVA on its website. Continuing in its mission to expand diabetes-related support, the company leveraged the IVA’s natural language model and launched the IVA Alexa Skill the following year for patients who prefer to interact through Amazon’s smart speaker devices.

Wanting to extend the IVA’s help to Spanish-speaking patients, the company and Verint worked to modify the IVA’s persona and content to connect with Spanish-speaking patients more effectively. This resulted in the IVA going live in Spanish, an innovative step for the pharmaceutical company and for the life sciences industry overall.

The Benefits: Best-in-class patient support

Patient engagement solutions provide education and support that can lead to better outcomes and better quality of life. The pharmaceutical company’s IVA is available around the clock, allowing diabetes patients and their caregivers to ask countless questions, including how to track blood sugar and A1C levels, get practical meal planning tips, and receive guidance on how to access valuable disease management resources.

The IVA answers 20,000 diabetes-related questions every month and it has achieved a 44 percent registration assistance rate, helping thousands of patients register for the care program. The IVA has not only assisted diabetes patients in their hours of need but has helped shed light on patient experiences so that care organizations and healthcare providers can learn and grow with patients throughout their healthcare journey.

In bringing the IVA to life, the pharmaceutical company’s digital health innovation team pioneered a novel digital assistant approach, embraced challenges, and held steadfast to their vision. Their innovation efforts were widely recognized within the industry.

As a long-term strategy, the insights from patient interactions with the IVA will continue to illuminate the everyday challenges of people living with diabetes. As a result, the pharmaceutical company, with the help of Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant, has and will continue to provide best-in-class patient support — beyond the medicine.