Patient Engagement Through Technology Is Having Its Moment — And JHF Is Helping Lead the Way

There’s a promising new approach to patient safety and consumer-directed health that’s getting much attention: patient engagement. From the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to leading academic journals like JAMA, to the showrooms of CES, the message is clear: health is achieved by and with the active engagement of consumers and patients. And, importantly, health cannot be obtained without it!

A recent JAMA editorial declared that the future of health systems depends on treating patients not as passive recipients, but as partners in their own care. CMS is reinforcing this shift by embedding patient-facing technology, preventive care incentives, and consumer empowerment into its innovation priorities. And now, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative are adding new urgency to the conversation with the release of a groundbreaking report: Self-Directed Patient Safety: Mapping the Emerging Landscape of Consumer-Facing Innovation.

Commissioned in early 2025 and developed in collaboration with TEConomy Partners, the report explores the exploding field of self-directed patient safety—where patients and families use digital tools to actively manage their health and prevent harm. From smart pill dispensers and AI triage tools to home-based infection monitors, these technologies give individuals greater control, clarity, and confidence in advancing their health.

The stakes are enormous:

• Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and 1 in 4 patients experience harm while receiving care.
• 60% of Americans live with at least one chronic disease and this percentage is expected to increase over the next few years. They are at greater risk of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and nursing home care if their disease isn’t well managed at home.
• Healthcare expenditures are growing faster than the American economy.

Yet, as the report notes, while innovation and investment are surging in this space, regulatory hurdles and fragmented health systems are slowing adoption. Many developers still market primarily to providers rather than directly to the people who could use these tools every day.

Increasingly and obviously, the best medical social worker or primary care practitioner could better manage the complexities of patient navigation and care coordination with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence. Let’s put that same navigation technology into the hands of consumers, so that patients become partners in their own care.

JHF’s report calls for a smarter, more patient-directed future—one where tech innovation minimizes risks for new parents, aging adults, and those managing chronic or rare diseases. It also highlights Pittsburgh’s potential to lead, given its strengths in AI, health sciences, academic medicine and care delivery.