Patient onboarding: The impact of GenAI on oncology care

How can a meaningful impact be achieved from the patient’s very first contact?

The Champalimaud Foundation is committed to advancing cutting-edge biomedical research and delivering high-quality clinical care. Its commitment to offering a more humanized and efficient patient experience aligns with its vision of leading innovation in oncology care and other health areas. As a secondary health care provider, and given the complexity of the conditions it treats, its processes and operations rely on contributions from many individuals, both clinical and administrative. Many of its patients are referred by other health care entities, often seeking a second opinion or specialized advice, which adds further complexity to patient onboarding. This makes patient onboarding one of the foundation’s most critical focus areas.

Within this operational context and given its distinct care model and approach to patient engagement, it was important to strike the right balance between technology, health care professionals, and patients. GenAI offered the opportunity to streamline administrative and clinical workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and help enable faster and more accurate analysis of large volumes of clinical data. From the standpoint of patient outcomes, the potential was equally significant: enabling quicker and more precise diagnoses, accelerating the understanding of patient histories, and supporting continuous, proactive follow-up tailored to each patient’s specific needs.

A collaboration that creates impact for everyone

The implementation of the solution led to significant improvements in patient care, including higher patient retention and better-quality consultations. It also optimized clinicians’ time by reducing the effort required to process information and reinforcing their focus on evaluation, validation, and clinical follow-up, resulting in a more efficient and patient-centered service.

Digital transformation today represents not just an opportunity, but a necessity in responding to the challenges faced by the health care sector. Advanced technologies have the potential to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce costs, and address shortages of human and financial resources. But their impact goes far beyond that. When adopted by health care organizations, these technologies have the potential to improve quality of life and enhance each patient’s journey by strengthening prevention efforts, accelerating access to care, enabling faster and more accurate diagnoses, and supporting more personalized treatments. Collaboration can shape the future of health care systems.

“Thinking about our vision for the future, the solution we implemented allowed us to create working and co‑development methodologies between parties that do not always speak the same language or share the same sense of usefulness or urgency.”

—Pedro Garcia da Silva, CIO, Fundação Champalimaud