healow evolves healthcare provider and patient engagement with Azure AI Foundry

healow manages more than 50 million patient communications for its customers. The reality today is that healthcare staff are overwhelmed and not able to provide patients the support they expect when they need it, while delivering quality care.

To create a contact center solution to address these challenges, healow chose Azure OpenAI in Azure AI Foundry Models. It was the optimal solution to automate real-time conversations with patients at scale and in a highly secure environment.

By automating routine tasks and providing real-time responses to patient inquiries, the AI contact center reduces healthcare staff workload and supports improved patient care. Success of the solution means expanding to serve new industries.

The healthcare industry must keep up with patients’ needs and providers’ constraints. There’s a constant push for better patient care, more efficient operations, and adherence to regulatory standards. Telehealth and digital solutions are creating new paths for healthcare providers to connect with patients and improve internal processes. But with these advancements come challenges, like ensuring the human touch isn’t lost when automating patient interactions and keeping conversations compliant.

“At healow, over the past 10 years, we have built solutions that strengthen the connection between patients and providers. By staying at the forefront of emerging technologies in AI, we see opportunities to transform one of the most critical patient touchpoints—the contact center,” says Rakhee Langer, Vice President at healow.

A leading provider of healthcare solutions, healow is building products to deliver quick, accurate patient answers. Putting the power of data and information in patients’ hands helps relieve overwhelmed healthcare staff, who are using healow solutions to send more than 50 million outbound patient messages each month, using automated calls, texts, and emails.

To help address the overload of incoming patient requests and convert outbound communication into a conversation with patients, healow’s newest product is a contact center solution called Genie. For patients to understand and embrace the technology, Genie needed to be quick, accurate, and highly secure. It also had to engage in conversation naturally over multiple channels—in the same way a patient would talk to anyone.

Simplifying the complexities of patient contact

To create its new contact center solution, healow knew it needed AI technologies offering real-time, natural language capabilities, scalability, and security. Microsoft Azure OpenAI in Azure AI Foundry Models was the answer to helping healthcare providers better manage workloads, while helping ensure patients receive the information they need.

“A key challenge for healthcare providers is managing the sheer volume of patient communications, especially during peak times, leading to staff burnout, long wait times, and missed connections. When it comes to their health, patients expect the best experience, and providers want to deliver exactly that. Genie, powered by Azure, is designed to meet this need,” says Sidd Shah, Vice President of Consumer Health Products at healow.

AI-powered Genie delivers highly secure, multimodal two-way communication with patients, who can use their own words via their channel of choice. With Azure OpenAI as a foundation for these real-time interactions, patients can get real-time, accurate responses whenever they want. Calls are answered promptly, simple questions are resolved quickly, and the more complex inquiries are directed appropriately.

In addition, Genie makes outgoing calls and campaigns possible, so patients receive the reminders and instructions they need without asking.

“Security is at the top of our list, given this is healthcare and the inherent need to protect patient data. Our customers need to have high trust in Genie’s compliance capabilities, and Genie needs to deliver that protection at scale. Azure AI Foundry can move as fast as we do, so providers see the value immediately.”

Rakhee Langer, Vice President, healow

Protecting patient data in a highly secure environment

“Security is at the top of our list, given this is healthcare and the inherent need to protect patient data. Our customers need to have high trust in Genie’s compliance capabilities, and Genie needs to deliver that protection at scale. Azure AI Foundry can move as fast as we do, so providers see the value immediately,” says Langer.

Due to the sensitive nature of patient data and regulations like HIPAA, compliance is paramount. Through robust security and compliance features in Azure, Genie helps ensure that patient interactions and data storage meet high standards. ISO 27001 and HIPAA compliance capabilities in Azure help protect patient information from unauthorized access and breaches.

In addition, solutions such as Azure Cosmos DB offer security and scalability for managing large amounts of data. Used together, these products not only enhance data protection but also build trust with customers considering Genie.

Tying it all together for a seamless patient experience

“We need multiple services from Azure that work well together for Genie to deliver on its promise. The solutions we’re using to build Genie must interact easily, so from the user perspective, the experience is seamless,” explains Bharat Satyanarayan, Vice President of Technology and Quality Assurance at healow.

The approach that healow chose for best-fit solutions included:

Azure OpenAI for natural language processing and real-time communication
Azure Communication Services for telephony
Azure AI Speech for converting speech to text, delivering seamless communication

With cost and reliability as critical elements, healow is using provisioned throughput units (PTUs).

“The interoperability of Azure OpenAI means Genie can deliver the right answer right when it’s needed, significantly improving the patient experience. Also, we’re using PTUs for reliability, consistency, and predictability when it comes to cost and performance,” says Shah.

“The interoperability of Azure OpenAI means Genie can deliver the right answer right when it’s needed, significantly improving the patient experience. Also, we’re using PTUs for reliability, consistency, and predictability when it comes to cost and performance.”

Sidd Shah, Vice President of Consumer Health Products, healow

Early adopters are sharing in the journey

By automating routine tasks and providing real-time responses to patient inquiries, Genie is reducing the workload on healthcare staff. Reducing the number of calls that providers must manage means staff can focus on more critical aspects of patient care. Patient care improves, and so does the experience of getting ready for a healthcare visit.

Through outgoing call automation to confirm appointments, provide pre-op instructions, and send reminders, Genie also helps reduce no-show rates. The solution helps providers predict and proactively address potential cancellations. Patients are better prepared, and providers can plan on a full schedule that delivers full care.

“Being able to utilize and incorporate Azure capabilities is helping us innovate faster. We can keep providing better services to our customers, as we don’t need to invest our time in building and training a new model. We take the APIs, incorporate them, and produce new features. It’s very efficient.”

Bharat Satyanarayan, Vice President of Technology and Quality Assurance, healow

The future of customer contact in healthcare and beyond

Genie is transforming patient engagement for healthcare providers and their patients. In addition, healow developers are previewing GPT-4o Realtime API audio models from Azure OpenAI to further enhance real-time patient interactions. By incorporating these models, healow can deliver low-latency “speech in, speech out” conversation, which significantly improves the responsiveness and accuracy of patient communications.

“Being able to utilize and incorporate Azure capabilities is helping us innovate faster. We can keep providing better services to our customers, as we don’t need to invest our time in building and training a new model. We take the APIs, incorporate them, and produce new features. It’s very efficient,” says Satyanarayan.

While healow continues to optimize Genie, the company is also moving beyond the healthcare industry. Seeing a clear need to help companies in other industries maximize call center operations, healow is taking Genie to new markets, strengthening contact center capabilities across a broader spectrum of customers.

“We get scalability and security from Azure, so Genie can provide speedy, accurate answers. For healthcare workers, this means they can dedicate their time to what truly matters—taking care of people,” says Shah.

Discover more about healow on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.