How to Improve Patient Engagement: Start With Human Connection
In healthcare, the phrase patient engagement often gets tied to technology” apps, portals, reminders, and digital dashboards. But when we look closer, true engagement isn’t about how often patients click or log in. It’s about how deeply they feel seen, understood, and supported throughout their care journey.
At Pleio, we’ve learned that improving patient engagement starts long before a refill reminder: it starts with trust, empathy, and emotional connection. Here’s what our data and experience have revealed about how to improve patient engagement in ways that last.
The Stubborn Reality of Medication Non-Adherence
Despite decades of effort, medication adherence rates have barely moved. Only about half of patients take their medications as prescribed, a figure first reported by the World Health Organization more than twenty years ago.
What’s worse, many healthcare professionals still feel neither responsible nor equipped to change it. They see adherence as a patient behavior problem rather than a shared communication challenge. The result is a cycle of disengagement: patients feel unseen, providers feel powerless, and outcomes stall.
That’s why we believe improving patient engagement isn’t about another intervention, it’s about rehumanizing care itself.
Technology Alone Can’t Create Connection
The last decade brought a wave of digital tools promising to revolutionize engagement. But dashboards can’t hold conversations, and reminders can’t build trust. The issue isn’t a lack of data, it’s a lack of connection.
Patients tell us they often feel talked at by systems that automate outreach but never listen. Our national study, Loneliness and Health Behaviors: A Missing Link in Chronic Care, found that 74% of people with chronic conditions say loneliness harms their health, and more than half say it interferes with how they manage medications.
Real engagement isn’t built on reminders, it’s built on relationships. When a patient feels understood, not processed, motivation and adherence naturally rise.
Better Engagement Starts With Human Connection
If the goal is to improve patient engagement, the solution isn’t more technology, it’s more humanity. That’s why Pleio’s GoodStart™ program pairs human connection with data-driven insights to help patients start and stay on therapy with confidence.
Digital tools play an important role, but empathy turns information into action. When patients feel cared for, they care more about their treatment, their health, and their future. Learn more about how Pleio’s GoodStart program can help your patients today!
