StrongPro: AI Empowering Healthcare Heroes for Healthier Communities

The design challenge for StrongPro was to combat medication non-adherence, a major issue leading to adverse drug events (ADEs) and hospital readmissions, costing the Australian healthcare system AU$7 billion annually. Chronic diseases account for 66% of the total disease burden, and ADEs are the most frequent cause of hospitalisations. Patients often lack sufficient knowledge about their conditions and treatments, exacerbating non-adherence. The challenge was to develop an intuitive, integrated solution that empowers pharmacists to proactively manage patient medication regimens and address the social determinants of health in their communities, transforming pharmacies into vital healthcare hubs that better serve their populations.

To tackle medication non-adherence, a multifaceted design approach was used, incorporating user experience design, data analytics, behavioural principles, and proprietary AI algorithms. Extensive user research guided iterative prototyping and testing for usability and reliability. A key milestone was achieving over 90% accuracy in predicting patient adherence and seamless integration with existing pharmacy systems. A major challenge was transforming extremely complex data sets into actionable insights, enabling pharmacists to make quick, informed decisions. Overcoming these roadblocks required developing entirely new design ideas and rethinking our approach numerous times through co-design workshops, ultimately resulting in a robust and effective solution.

StrongPro has made a significant commercial, environmental, and societal impact. Commercially, it optimises workflows and reduces medication error costs. Environmentally, it minimises medication waste through precise tracking. Societally, it ensures quality use of medication, reducing hospitalisations and supporting proactive health management. In a pilot site case study, tailored communications led to a 46.5% success rate in patient script fills and a 13.7% increase in patient visits, improving health outcomes. These findings show that pharmacists can better harness community health needs and address social determinants, transforming pharmacies into healthcare hubs that instigate positive behavioural change and healthier outcomes nationwide.

StrongPro offers several innovative features: AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: Achieves over 90% accuracy in predicting medication adherence, enabling proactive patient management. This proprietary feature, unique to StrongPro, was developed using our extensive knowledge of the pharmacy sector and leveraging existing data collection. By harnessing this data, StrongPro effectively transforms it into actionable insights for better patient outcomes. Patient-Centric Communications: Delivers personalised health reminders, health information, and behavioural prompts via SMS, tailored to the patient needs. A UTI medication campaign resulted in a 41.30% increase in prescription fills. Comprehensive Data Insights: Provides detailed analytics on patient behaviour, adherence, and health outcomes. A cholesterol medication reminder campaign led to a 28.57% rise in patient visits and a 33.33% increase in script fills. Seamless Integration: Integrates easily with existing systems, streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burdens. Enhanced Patient Engagement: Improves communication between pharmacists and patients, evident in increased adherence and pharmacy visits. Support for Professional Services: Enables pharmacies to offer medication reviews, health screenings, and educational programs. Behavioural Economics: Utilises principles such as framing and loss aversion to nudge patients towards improved health behaviours. Ethical and Privacy Considerations: Built on consent-led processes and data ownership, ensuring ethical handling of patient data.