Making Primary Care Available at a Reasonable Cost: AdviNow Medical, an AI Solution Provider to Healthcare, Sets Sights on Global Expansion

Our Artificial Intelligence revolutionizes how patients engage with healthcare providers: James Bates

Initially, artificial intelligence (AI) was introduced to describe a computer’s imitation of the human mind and its investigation of real-world concerns with a holistic human approach. Scientists and researchers all over the world are very excited about advancements in innovation that have arisen from an innate desire to create newer and better technologies that facilitate mankind to extend beyond their own physical caliber. The promise of further and further progressing AI has always been on the horizon, from realistic science to fantastical imaginations in movies and literature. AI largely enables the capacity to store and process huge amounts of data in an intelligent manner, and more specifically to translate that information into functional tools. Since its inception,  AI has been deployed for highly selective defense or space exploration applications, wherein its success in problem solving has been proven – particularly in areas such as risk prediction. Now, gradual transition to its utility in healthcare is being widely experienced through AI-based systems that allow for better diagnosis and treatment of debilitating conditions.

AdviNow Medical provides artificial intelligence solutions to the healthcare sector. The company’s AI is always on call to collect all the patient information and scribe the results in the EHR. It conducts a medical examination by asking detailed questions, instructing and monitoring measurements, and then sends its diagnosis to providers for review. The company serves clinics, emergency departments, and other medical offices.

AdviNow Medical was established in 2016 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Interview Excerpt: James Bates, CEO

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Access to healthcare is 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 especially acute, as the continuing decline of the profitability of primary and urgent care clinics inhibits most new graduates from choosing this important point of patient population health.

The true solution to the healthcare crisis is to dramatically reduce barriers that prevent timely diagnoses, inhibit patient’s ability for prompt care, and prevent management of chronic issues proactively before any medical emergencies can arise. Politicians have attempted to solve this problem; however, the financial limitations and a shortage of providers make the formula impossible to solve within the current system. Now with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and enabling automation, we can truly solve the healthcare crisis. AdviNow Medical, also known as ANM, invented a patient engagement system named “On Call” that delivers healthcare technologies that provide diagnostic, monitoring, and treatment services with the goal of making primary care available for anyone at any time for a reasonable cost. Our “On Call” solution holds the key to minimizing costs and patient wait times while improving patient outcomes and overall population health. This innovation is not only time efficient but remarkably cost efficient. Installing our “On Call” stations will not only lower wait times and costs, but deliver precise diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes, ultimately increasing overall patient satisfaction.

How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

Our “On Call” solution has delivered the first fully automated medical visit that helps to bring the profitability of urgent care facilities from near zero to over 40% EBITA. As the AI automates all data collection and documentation tasks for the provider, the provider time per patient optimizes from 20 minutes to as little as 3 minutes. This allows the complete patient-provider time to be used to confirm the AI-gathered information rather than for the initial findings. ANM’s AI used in combination with telemedicine enables a comprehensive and cost-effective medical visit. Almost all outpatient clinics have shown interest in having the “On Call” system as their partner.

Tell us more about the “On Call” solution.

“On Call” is an artificial intelligence application that conducts the medical examination by asking the patient specific questions, instructing (using augmented reality) the patient to take all medical measurements, and then sending all the data collected to the provider for review.

The application is an automated medical visit that can be used in or out of the clinic setting. In a clinic, 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 the provider would usually ask to collect information important for diagnosis. The system will also use augmented reality (AR) to guide the patient to take medical measurements on themselves, then determine whether follow-up measurements and questions are necessary based on the results of those measurements. The application will then send the list of potential diagnoses, justifications, and treatments to a provider for review.

In the final step, the patient will have a short discussion, either in person or over a video call, with the provider to receive the final diagnosis and treatment regimen. The AI completely charts; scribes notes, orders, and prescriptions; and performs all other required documentation for the provider, freeing them to see the next patient. This allows the provider to see as many as fifteen patients an hour without feeling frazzled or leaving a heavy workload for later as is common today. This process is not only time efficient but remarkably cost efficient. Installing these kiosk stations will not only lower wait times and costs, but will deliver precise diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes, ultimately increasing overall patient satisfaction. Our vision for healthcare is the future. The system completely changes the way patients and providers interact with each other, driving automation that is intuitive and non-threatening.

What challenges did you face in your initial years? What can your peers learn from it?

Inventing new technologies that will revolutionize an industry as large as healthcare requires having a clear vision with discipline. The technology innovation required gathering the right team with the right expertise that all shared the desire to help solve the healthcare crisis. Then, executing the development of breakthrough technology in a cost-effective and timely manner became the next challenge. Once the base platform was developed, the next challenge was gaining acceptance of existing clinics to change their workflow to use the automated medical encounter. This was a whole different challenge that required the finding of visionary partners in the healthcare field.

If you have to list factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

The three founding principles of AdviNow Medical drive revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI)-based products that improve quality while reducing cost. The first principle is to optimize the provider time for diagnosis and treatment while maintaining personal interaction with the patient. We maximize the potential automation of the symptom and vitals collection, EMR charting, provider note and treatment scribing, 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. Everyone in the world needs access to healthcare automation, regardless of medical training. By injecting AI and augmented reality (AR) into the patient-provider encounter, we help guide a patient with limited formal education to collect all information needed by the provider to diagnose and treat anywhere at any time.

The third principle is to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. We prepare a complete workup of the patient and present in simple overview screens the potential illnesses, their justifications, and their most effective treatments. Consistency of care is accomplished across all providers that deliver the best evidence-based medicine at the lowest costs and the shortest times.

As a follow-up question on sustainability, where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

Our technology has been implemented in several clinics in multiple states, allowing the system to be further developed by testing it on real patients. We expect to see our AI used throughout the world improving healthcare for millions of people.

The Man Behind the Operation: A Brief Background

James Bates, CEO: James is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of experience inventing and directing the development of revolutionary products. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated technological vision and profitable in start-ups as well as large established companies. James was the founding Vice President of Asian Operations with Silicon Labs. There, he hired the team and partnered with many companies like Samsung to help develop the technology to shrink mobile phones to fit inside a human hand. He was later the Senior Vice President and Officer of NXP (Freescale) where he led the invention of key technologies that enable self-driving vehicles. Throughout these roles, James has secured himself as a dynamic leader, demonstrating both technological vision and profitable growth. This experience of being involved with multiple technological breakthroughs gives him a unique perspective on how artificial intelligence will change healthcare.

“We deliver healthcare technologies that provide diagnostic, monitoring and treatment services in multiple languages and countries.”