Agentic AI in Healthcare

Hey everyone,

I would highly recommend listening to Sequoia' recent talk on the AI opportunity. For those you aren't familiar with Sequoia, they are a top tier venture capital firm and have backed a record 134 unicorns.

One thing to keep in mind is that as AI agents create wealth and displace jobs, this wealth creation must be coupled with wealth distribution and we need to institute systems to take care of those being displaced. 

Following are the AI agent opportunities I see in healthcare, in addition I believe the market is ready and the pain point is high enough for healthcare systems to pay for such solutions. 

Patient Inbound

• The Current Situation: Currently this is performed by medical office assistants, this is generally a high turnover position. 

• The AI Possibility: AI agents could act as virtual front office assistants, capable of:

  • Answering common patient questions instantly, any time of day.

  • Making appointment booking and changes much simpler through the patient's preferred communication method.

  • Intelligently sorting and prioritizing your messages so urgent matters get immediate attention.

  • Collecting necessary details before appointments, saving patients and clinicians  time during the visit.

Physician inbox management

• The Current Situation: My fellow physicians and I spend a significant portion of our day managing lab results, imaging reports, and prescription refills.

• The AI Possibility: AI agents could act as intelligent assistants, helping us by:

  • Highlighting critical results that need immediate review.

  • Providing concise summaries of lengthy medical reports.

  • Streamlining routine prescription refills (with our careful oversight, of course).

  • Archiving unnecessary messages to improve efficiency.

AI scribe plus

• The Current Situation: As AI scribes become a commodity, their defensibility will lie on additional features. 

• The AI Possibility: AI agents could act as physician co-pilots, helping us by:

  • Ordering prescriptions identified during the visit .

  • Writing referral requests and faxing them.

  • Filling out forms/ imaging requests identified during the visit. 

Enhancing Patient Outbound and Follow-Up

• The Current Situation: This one is likely to cause  the most disruption as its currently done by nurses.

• The AI Possibility: AI agents could enhance this vital work by:

  • Sending patients personalized, automated reminders for appointments and medications.

  • Performing tasks created from the inbox such as calling patients and advising them to get follow up blood work.

  • Proactively reminding patients about important preventative screenings and tasks identified during the physician visit.

Thank you for reading,

Rishad