Breast Cancer Screening and the Women it Saves
Breast Cancer Awareness Month means something in everyone’s lives. Most people have somehow been touched by the disease through friends, family or even through their own journey. Healthcare systems and their communities rally around pink ribbons, fundraising, 5k runs, heightened screenings, and other events that have become indicative of Fall’s arrival.
Though early detection is critical to preventive health, fears of COVID19 cause many high risk people to delay the tests and screenings they need. Do patient engagement leaders have the right data and tools to find and influence the highest risk patients?
Typically, the data are available, but it takes sophisticated AI analysis across millions of encounters and hundreds of attributes to identify the right patients. Fortunately, health systems don’t need to hire teams of data scientists and engineers to gain these insights.
Health systems employing SymphonyRM’s Next Best Actions have driven a 3.5x increase in Breast Cancer screenings, early identification and intervention in higher risk patients, and overall improved patient satisfaction and loyalty. We provide AI and data science to create precise Next Best Actions for patients based on their different risk levels and preferred engagement methods.
For this Breast Cancer Awareness Month – 2020, we felt it was important to share the personal, human impact on those who benefit from screenings like the mammogram.
A SymphonyRM partner health system used our AI purpose-built Next Best Actions to create targeted outreach strategies for women in their system at risk for breast cancer. Each journey was personalized to the individual, and that increased engagement from their health system gave many women the knowledge and the power to seek proper care and intervention. We would like to share the journey of 3 women who benefited from AI-driven outreach campaigns like these.
Patient Outcome 1: Breast Cancer Screening resulting in NO abnormalities
Meet Margaret. She is a 50-something year old woman who has been a loyal patient to the specialists helping her to navigate autoimmune disease. Her health is important to her, and sometimes she feels overwhelmed with the amount of information she needs to remember.
The result? An engaged, high-risk patient who is empowered to keep taking deeper control of her healthcare.
Patient Outcome 2: Breast Cancer Screening resulting in NO abnormalities
This is Sally. She is a 47 year old educator who would see a provider only if she was sick, and often just in Urgent Care due to her busy schedule.
The result? A re-engaged patient who is now being more proactive with her care. As a now-established patient with the specialty, she may receive more detailed, personalized communications based on her needs and her communication preferences.
Patient Outcome 3: Breast Cancer Screening resulting in Partial Mastectomy
Linda is a patient in her mid-sixties. She has been a patient with the health system for many years. She likes her providers and is happy with her new Medicare Advantage plan. However, she routinely puts off her own needs because of the time she spends caring for others.
The result? Critical intervention for a patient living with otherwise undiagnosed, life threatening pathology.
These three journeys are true, although the personal information has been changed. These women are mothers, sisters, daughters, friends. We all have them in our lives, and we all care about their health.
While we can all celebrate with Margaret and Sally, we can also be thankful that Linda is now receiving the care and support that she needs. This is why we do what we do – we are all patients. Breast cancer means something to everyone. Early detection and preventative screenings can change the course of everyone’s lives.
For Breast Cancer Awareness Month – 2020, remind the women in your communities how important this screening is. Everybody could use a friendly nudge sometimes.
Sarah Coles
Sarah Coles is a marketing veteran with over 15 years leading marketing efforts in highly competitive environments. She now leads healthcare marketing services, helping clients with outreach, for SymphonyRM. She works every day with healthcare clients to engage their patients. Sarah is an expert at AI & Next Best Actions driven strategies.
