Technology is rapidly bridging the gap between patients and healthcare providers, allowing for better care and greater understanding, especially when compared to what can be achieved in brief, in-person appointments. By employing technology to enhance the user experience (UX), healthcare providers are able to collect more data, customize treatments, and attend to patients no matter where they are.

Health Informatics is a cutting-edge medical discipline dedicated to the intersection of technology and treatment, and enhancing the user experience (UX) for patients has become an integral part of 21st-century healthcare. With that in mind, here are the top 4 UX trends that will continue to shape the healthcare landscape for the future.

Top 4 User Experience (UX) Trends in Healthcare

Telehealth

For the majority of recorded history, diagnosis and treatment meant travel. Either you went to the doctor or the doctor came to you. Distance has long been a barrier to adequate care, but telehealth technology has finally closed the gap.

Telehealth skyrocketed to near total popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lessons it taught both patients and providers are here to stay. By arranging remote appointments through internet-connected devices, an already strained healthcare infrastructure was able to treat patients across the nation without the need for travel.

When telehealth incorporates remote monitoring devices such as a FitBit or bluetooth glucometer, providers are able to collect more data over a greater period of time, further improving outcomes beyond what might be sensibly accomplished in a brief visit at the nearest clinic. In short, telehealth is too valuable and too powerful to be disregarded anytime soon.

Voice User Interfaces (VUI)

If you told someone 20 years ago that humans would be able to verbally communicate with computers in the near future, they would have been skeptical. However, voice technology is common in the 21st century. In fact, chances are you have spoken to a computer twice today already as Siri and Alexa have become household names.

Voice user interfaces (VUIs) are nearly ubiquitous in our modern world. They allow quick, accurate interactions with only verbal commands—a revolution in user experience. That same VUI technology can be trained to speak with patients at length about nearly any condition or issue they’re having. By using AI to map out conversation flows (the natural progression of questions and answers), VUIs can gather interview data and pass information along to human healthcare providers.

VUIs can also offer support and guidance for everything from smoking cessation to treatment routines, improving outcomes for patients and freeing up time and resources for providers.

AI-Backed Chatbots

Sometimes (or perhaps most of the time), you’d rather text someone than give them a call. While VUIs advance, taking on empathetic, human tones of voice, AI-supported chatbots provide another avenue for the text savvy.

AI chatbots are 24/7, textual resources capable of guiding patients through everyday healthcare concerns. With fast advice and acrobatic responses, these chatbots can walk patients through their menstrual cycles, reinforce preparation for upcoming procedures, or recommend dietary restrictions for cancer survivors.

Best of all, AI chatbots are accessible day and night through devices most of us already keep near to us. In essence, chatbots are doctor’s assistants that you can text whenever you need guidance—a personal physician, providing advice, clarity, and calm.

Virtual/Augmented Reality

Some concepts are better understood when visualized. By literally seeing a blood clot, for example, physicians are better able to grasp the challenges of treating that blood clot. And for immobile patients struggling with mental health, simply experiencing a different place visually can make all the difference.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have long been fodder for science fiction. Today, these technologies are science fact. AR software is already helping nurses find veins faster, and in the operating room, surgeons are able to visualize complex neurological injuries with VR goggles.

The same gains are being made in the treatment of mental health from the comfort of patient living rooms. Customized VR scenarios can be designed after a conversation with a therapist to provide comfort in challenging times. At the moment, there are practically no limits to VR and AR technology can improve the user experience throughout healthcare.

Be a Part of the UX Future at UAB

Want to be a part of a program that lets you explore technologies to enhance user experience (UX)? Faculty in UAB’s Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSHI) program are federally funded through multiple research projects to advance trending topic areas in UX. Some of our projects focus on using voice user interfaces to deliver diabetes management programs to the deep south, using chatbots to enable chronic diseases management for people with disabilities, and creating a telehealth platform connected to Alexa devices to deliver diabetes management programs for people with disabilities.

If you’re excited about the possibilities of data, analytics, VR, AR, AI, and other emergent tech, take a look at our course catalog. Through our range of online classes, you’ll receive accredited training from award-winning educators so that you, too, can revolutionize the future of healthcare.