Transforming Medical Information Services Through Responsible Digital Innovation

Key insights from our Head of Research & Innovation, Gabrièle Piaton, explain how digital innovation has the power to transform Medical Information Services to the ultimate benefit of patients’ safety and healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) satisfaction.  

The growing public use of medications, including over the counter and alternative medicines, has increased the demand for accessible and accurate medical information. Traditional Medical Information Call Centers struggle with volumes of calls, rising labor costs, making them less sustainable and managing a substantial part of low added-value requests. Multilingual communication adds a layer of complexity due to worldwide globalization, requiring native-speakers medical information experts or dedicated translation solutions. Additionally, some complex products require specific information difficult to transmit, raising a number of calls that may have been avoided using other channels of communication. Finally, Medical Information services can suffer from both over or under-demand – for instance, respectively in the context of product-related crisis or when patients use instead publicly available generative AI to look for information – with the risks that it may cost! 

As society shifts towards digital platforms and real-time information access, Medical Information Services can be optimized and enriched by leveraging a responsible and ethical use of both compliant and innovative technologies.  

Using collective design thinking approaches, we can rethink the journey of patients and HCPs all along the Medical Information Services value chain.   

First, frequently asked questions can now easily be managed through automated or AI-enabled voice bots or chatbots, alleviating the volume of such “level-1” requests for Medical information experts – who may have more time to focus on more complex, “level-2 or 3” requests. The 24/7 nature of such information access would also bring rapid response to patients or HCPs. However, one may not imagine that such technologies are inexpensive nor easy to implement. Reaching cost-efficiency necessitates a certain amount of daily requests, and, when using generative AI technologies, may also be facilitated through the development, training and implementation of context-specific small language models. This may also improve the bot performance in terms of quality and relevance of responses, ensuring patient safety through dedicated guardrails. 

In some cases, the bot may also direct the patient or HCP to a dedicated app, to get further information through complementary audio and video channels. This may be very useful in the context of complex products to handle, using for example a dedicated 3D leaflet. It may also allow to reinforce some key messages related to the product use and/or in terms of therapeutic education. 

Coming now to the Medical Information Call Centers, we also have now the possibility to design integrated end-to-end systems from telephony to CRM, allowing a fluid and efficient process. Automation and AI technologies can be used to enhance customer experience and optimize a number of steps – such as augmented vocal server interaction, real-time speech-to-text call transcription, facilitated knowledge bases management and consultation, configurable automated reports and letters, etc.  

AI language technologies can also help analyzing and refining the calls’ narratives and categories, to get a real-time vision as close as possible to the field of concrete issues and questions faced by patients and HCPs, hence adapt action plans accordingly.  

On top of these, other real-world data coming from different sources – such as social media and health forum, may add qualitative insights to be investigated with the stakeholders, ensuring a good use of medicine.  

Finally, digital innovation and variety of channels may support a better understanding, accessibility and visibility of Medical Information Services by the general population, for the ultimate benefit of treatments’ effectiveness and patients’ safety. 

At PLG, we have implemented a global, innovative, integrated and scalable Call Center platform to support our customers worldwide. In addition, our innovation team can support you in designing or selecting added-value technology bricks to enhance and optimize the best service in your specific context.  

To meet the growing demand for accessible, multilingual, and real-time medical information, the industry must shift towards more technology and less labor investment. AI-powered tools can provide broad language capabilities by handling translations efficiently, reducing the need for costly human translators.  

Self-service strategies, such as AI-driven chatbots, can handle commonly asked questions and provide instructional assistance for medical devices. Meanwhile, Medical Information Contact Centers will remain essential for addressing more complex inquiries, such as adverse event (AE) and product complaint (PC) intake.  

The future of Medical Information relies on AI-driven solutions that enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve accessibility. These solutions ensure that both consumers and healthcare professionals receive accurate, real-time responses to their inquiries.  

PLG can support you throughout your digital and medical information transformation journey. 

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