29 May 2025
As healthcare continues to move toward precision medicine and personalized care, hospitals and health systems are constantly trying to balance cost and resource efficiency while improving the overall patient experience and positively impacting population health. This has proven difficult as costs continue to rise and provider workloads continue to increase.
One strategy to help achieve this balance is using artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to scale genetic testing programs. AI chatbots provide a tech-forward approach to addressing multiple strategic priorities for healthcare organizations. In particular, they can be used to efficiently and effectively identify patients who may benefit from genetic testing, enhancing existing workflows and decision-making processes.
AI chatbots present an innovative solution to these challenges, offering scalable standardization, efficiency, improved patient engagement and a positive patient experience while supporting the quadruple aim of healthcare:
- Enhancing the patient experience
- Improving population health
- Reducing costs
- Improving the work life of healthcare providers
The challenge of scaling traditional genetic testing programs
Proactive genetic testing programs for hereditary cancer are more important than ever, helping shift care from a reactive approach to a proactive one focused on risk identification and earlier intervention. They help identify patients at increased risk of cancer, guide medical decisions that may help with prevention, lead to earlier diagnoses and can increase the chance of successful treatment and improve survival rates.
However, traditional genetic testing workflows often face several challenges, including:
- Inconsistent risk assessment across locations
- Time-consuming data collection and education processes
- Limited resources for genetic counseling
- Varied patient engagement and completion rates
- Operational inefficiencies that impact cost-effectiveness
Four benefits of AI chatbots in genetic testing programs
AI chatbots offer excellent support for genetic testing programs in four ways:
1. Scalable, standardized risk assessment and education
When implemented as part of a screening program, AI chatbots can support consistent, evidence-based risk assessment across all locations and patient populations. Automating the collection of personal and family health histories through standardized questioning allows all patients to receive the same high-quality screening experience and education, regardless of location or provider.
Chatbot-driven genetic screening programs achieve high completion rates, with one study showing 82.3% of patients completing their initial assessment. This standardization helps minimize variations in care delivery and supports health equity initiatives by ensuring all patients receive the same thorough evaluation.
AI chatbots can translate technical and clinical information into simple terms, providing a strong supplement to provider education, enhancing preventive care opportunities and increasing operational efficiency. They provide standardized education to patients at different literacy and language levels and give patients confidence in knowing their next step based on their results.
2. Operational efficiency and cost savings
The impact of AI chatbots on operational efficiency is significant. They can streamline physician workflows, reduce administrative burden and provider burnout, improve resource allocation and offer cost-effective genetic services at scale.
Chatbots save human resource time by taking on the time-consuming task of collecting a patient’s personal and family health history, insurance information and more. This reduction in administrative time by automating repetitive, less-skilled tasks frees up healthcare workers for higher-impact endeavors.
3. Improved patient identification and engagement
Genetic testing helps identify patients at increased cancer risk, guiding medical decisions that may help with prevention, lead to earlier diagnosis and increase the chances of successful treatment and survival. However, testing programs are only as good as the engagement they produce.
From a health equity perspective, AI chatbots can reach diverse socioeconomic groups and have the potential to reduce disparities in access to genetic counseling and education. This is due to standardized risk assessments reducing barriers to screening.
AI chatbots are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year. This gives patients flexibility to complete risk assessments on their own schedule and at their convenience.
4. Enhanced patient experience and satisfaction
AI chatbots offer a personalized experience based on patient answers, with multiple language options, consistent communication and higher patient satisfaction, leading to improved outcomes.
Patient engagement with AI chatbots has been remarkably positive. One retrospective analysis showed:
- Over 140,000 patients were invited to engage with a clinical chatbot
- 82.3% completed the cancer risk assessment
- 37.0% met germline genetic testing criteria
Not only are patients engaging with chatbots, but they’re also having a positive experience while doing it. A separate study also found that for patients completing genetic testing education, the average satisfaction score was 4.6 out of 5.
Implementation considerations for health system executives
AI chatbots enable health systems to scale precision medicine programs across practices and locations by streamlining genetic test ordering. Implementing these programs supports multiple strategic priorities.
When evaluating and implementing AI chatbot solutions, consider if they offer:
1. Integration with existing workflows
- Offers seamless integration with your electronic health record systems
- Has clear protocols for result management
- Defines roles and responsibilities for staff after the assessments have been completed
2. Provider education and support
- Provides training on chatbot capabilities
- Establishes clear escalation pathways
- Creates regular feedback loops for continuous improvement
3. Patient communication
- Establishes clear messaging about the role of AI chatbots
- Educates patients and staff about privacy and security measures
- Offers multiple language options
4. Monitoring and evaluation
- Tracks key performance indicators
- Monitors patient satisfaction
- Assesses clinical outcomes
- Measures operational efficiency gains
How Labcorp can help: Introducing Gia®
Invitae, a leading medical genetics company that is now part of Labcorp, offers the Genetic Information Assistant, Gia®, an innovative, state-of-the-art, HIPAA-compliant AI chatbot assisting with hereditary cancer genetic testing.
Gia is used for pre-test education and information gathering as well as post-test education and information sharing. It uses evidence-based guidelines and decision trees to ask thorough questions about patients’ personal and family health history to gather information and help providers determine whether genetic testing may be appropriate.
Gia offers:
- Efficient clinical information collection
- Streamlined pre-test education and consent processes
- Post-test education and result sharing capabilities
- Proven completion rates across diverse populations
- Strong patient engagement across age groups, with 70% of users being 40 or older
- Efficient interactions, with conversations 32 minutes shorter on average than traditional approaches
- 92% patient satisfaction
Gia has demonstrated impressive results in identifying patients who would benefit from genetic testing. In addition to potentially identifying three times more patients with high-risk pathogenic variants than traditional clinical workflows, Gia has demonstrated the following findings:
- 31% of patients who completed assessments met criteria for germline genetic testing
- 19% of eligible patients completed germline genetic testing
- Of those who proceeded with testing, 11% were found to have pathogenic variants
- 91% of variants were clinically actionable, enabling early intervention and prevention strategies
- A projected $456,000 cost savings per patient was identified for one care organization
Gia has proven particularly effective in both high-risk clinics (treating affected populations) and average-risk clinics (focusing on unaffected populations), demonstrating its versatility across different healthcare settings. It allows you to easily and consistently integrate genetic information into patient care, so you feel confident you and your patients have all the information to make informed decisions for improved outcomes.
Contact us today
For health system executives looking to scale their genetic testing programs while maintaining high-quality care standards, Gia offers a proven, personalized, comprehensive solution. By partnering with Labcorp, you can leverage cutting-edge AI technology to streamline genetic testing workflows, improve patient identification and engagement, and advance your precision medicine initiatives efficiently and effectively.
To partner with us, or to learn more about implementing Gia in your health system, contact us today. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news and resources for hospital and health system executives.