Access to healthcare is in an increasing global crisis. The aging population and the proliferation of chronic illnesses are exasperating the existing global shortage of healthcare providers. The shortage in primary point-of-care clinics is severely acute as the continuing decline of profitability of primary and urgent care clinics inhibits most new graduates from choosing this important point of patient population health. The current crisis is not only limited to the out-of-control costs for patients, businesses, and governments, but also limits what patients can afford; care and access to high quality convenient care is out of reach.
To further complicate the crisis in the US, the profitability of primary and urgent care clinics has plummeted to near zero. The consequence is a reduced number of providers in the field and an even further reduced level of investment. With a vision to reduce the barrier to access primary and acute care, AdviNow Medical (ANM) is improving the profitability of existing clinics through artificial intelligence (AI)- and augmented reality (AR)-enabled automation. AdviNow Medical has delivered the first fully automated medical visit that dramatically improves the profitability of urgent care facilities from near 0% to over 40% EBITA. As the AI automates all non-diagnostic and treatment tasks for the provider, the total time per patient is optimized from well over 20 minutes to only the patient conversation time of as little as 3 minutes. This revolutionary system allows the complete patient-provider time to be used to confirm the AI- prepared patient workup with suggested diagnosis and treatment, rather than initial findings and measurements. ANM AI used in combination with telemedicine enables a comprehensive and cost-effective medical visit from anywhere at any time.
The recent proliferation of primary and urgent care clinics located in retail outlets have had limited success due to the lower patient flow limiting quality of care and profitability. AdviNow Medical’s automated encounter allows these retail-based clinics to scale directly with patient flow. AdviNow reduces the cost and access of primary and urgent care by not only improving patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes but doing so in a more affordable and attainable way than existing clinics.
The Three Founding Principles of AdviNow Medical
AdviNow Medical’s revolutionary AI-based products are driven by three founding principles of the company. The first principle is to optimize the patient-provider time for diagnosis and treatment while maintaining personal interaction. The providers are in short supply and are the most expensive part of the healthcare engagement. ANM maximizes automation of the symptom and vitals collection, EMR charting, provider note scribing and treatment, and order entry. This automation allows the provider to focus on the valuable diagnostic and treatment part of the patient interaction. The second principle is the democratization of healthcare. All people need access to healthcare automation, regardless of medical training. By injecting AI and AR into the patient-provider encounter, ANM helps guide a patient with limited formal education to collect all information needed by the provider to diagnose and treat effectively anywhere at any time. The third principle is to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. ANM prepares a complete workup of the patient and presents it to the provider in simple overview screens. This workup includes the potential illnesses with measurements and other justifications followed by the most effective individualized and customized treatment. Consistency of care is accomplished across all providers that delivers the best evidence-based medicine at the lowest costs and shortest time. The ANM work-up allows all providers to achieve this consistency.
A Visionary Building Technology-Driven Care
The CEO of AdviNow Medical, James Bates, is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of experience inventing and managing the development of revolutionary products. Throughout his career James has been involved in almost every major consumer technological breakthrough, which has allowed him to gain a unique perspective on how AI will change healthcare. Until December 2015, James was Officer and Senior Vice President of NXP running a $1B business. There and at previous positions, he led the development of the technologies used in self-driving vehicles and other AI-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In late 2015, James had an acquaintance approach him for an investment into a chain of urgent care clinics. James quickly realized that the future profitability of urgent care in its current form was not positive. However, James also realized that the clinic work flow and all other aspects of the system were not automated. James’s vision was to apply the AI technology used in self-driving vehicles to healthcare and help resolve some of the serious healthcare issues that the world is facing. With an aim to reduce the barrier to healthcare James started his company, AdviNow (Advise Now) Medical, a pioneer in the AI-driven medical world. James’s vision is propelling the medical world to a highly advanced future. When asked about his advice for aspiring technologists with futuristic approaches to the healthcare, James asserts, “The world as we know it today will not exist in 20 years. Automation of white collar tasks will force the younger generation to be creative, to add value, and to find the American dream. To achieve this, they need to ‘be creative, be persistent, and work hard!’”
The Automated Medical Visits
AdviNow Medical leverages cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) to automate most of the processes in clinics. In this technology-driven medical visit, the patient approaches a kiosk and scans their identification and insurance cards to register. Next, using an intuitive graphical user interface, the patient enters their chief complaint. The ANM AI will ask detailed follow-up questions that a provider would ask, collecting important information for diagnosis. The system will also use augmented reality to guide the patient to take medical measurements on themselves with clinical levels of accuracy with no medical training necessary. The application will then send the list of potential diagnoses, justifications, and treatments to a provider for review. The patient has a short discussion either in person or via a video call to receive the final diagnosis and treatment regimen. The AI completely charts, scribes notes, orders prescriptions, and performs all other required documentation for the providers, freeing them to see the next patient. This allows the provider to see as many as twenty patients an hour without feeling frazzled or leaving a heavy workload for later. This process is not only time efficient, but remarkably cost efficient. Installing these kiosks will not only lower wait times and costs, but deliver precise diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes, ultimately increasing overall patient satisfaction.