Some digital engagement solutions enable interactions between patients and healthcare professionals, patient organisations, or other patients. Online forums, remote consultations, blog posts, online surveys, virtual meetings, and crowdsourcing funds are all good examples of this kind of digital engagement.

In other instances, patients may interact directly with an app or technology; for example, completing digital clinical assessments, scheduling medical appointments, tracking symptoms and side effects with smart devices, or requesting assistance from a health chat-bot.

While these digital solutions provide many benefits to patients, there are still difficulties and challenges associated with them. For example, not everyone may be able to access solutions, and by having remote consultations between doctors and patients there is an element of human interaction that is lost.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and health services around the world have recommended social distancing to protect people from the risk of infection, particularly for individuals in high-risk categories. These social distancing measures, and the requisition of many hospitals and clinics for COVID-19 patients, have led to necessary changes in healthcare provision away from the typical face-to-face system.

In response, patients’ reliance on digital engagement solutions for their healthcare needs has increased.