“Seventy-two percent of Americans start their healthcare journey on the internet, forcing them to become a doctor and a health benefits expert at the same time.”
So claimed Arizona-based Banner Health in a recent statement announcing its implementation of a digital triage platform designed to help consumers and patients navigate the 28-hospital health system using AI.
The platform, developed by Buoy Health, provides real-time personalized clinical support that aims to provide patients with the information they need to avoid either delaying care longer than they should or “over-consuming” care by frequent trips to the emergency room.
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, academic and employed physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services.
"At Banner Health, we work to identify tools and resources to help make healthcare easier for those we serve," said Jeff Johnson, Vice President of Innovation & Digital Business, Banner Health. "Buoy Assistant is a great example of one of those innovative solutions that we now offer our customers, providing them peace of mind and guidance as they navigate health information online.”
Buoy, a digital health company developed out of the Harvard Innovation Labs by a team of doctors and data-scientists, is focused on providing personalized clinical support through technology to individuals the moment they have a healthcare concern. According to the company, “the all-on-one technology is able to deliver triage at scale with transparency and in a way that can be adopted seamlessly within the healthcare system.”
According to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, Buoy Health’s chatbot platform helped to decrease the rate of uncertainty surrounding level of care among patients.
The study of more than 150,000 patient interactions with the digital triage tool found that the proportion of patients who were uncertain about the level of care they needed for their health issue decreased from 34 percent to 21 percent following implementation of the digital triage tool. And 32 percent of patients reduced the rate of urgency of their intended level of care.
"The Buoy platform provides a trustworthy tool for consumers to access reputable clinician-curated content and receive intelligent recommendations, ultimately removing dependencies and meaningless steps in the consumer care journey," said Dr. Andrew Le, Chief Executive Officer & Cofounder, Buoy Health, in the statement announcing the launch. "Buoy and Banner have a common goal of meeting consumers at the true front door of care - the moment a medical concern or question comes to mind, and the individual begins investigating. We're proud to offer Banner customers a unique, personalized experience."