"A lot of the conversation around AI in healthcare focuses on diagnostics and drug discovery or on doctor-patient visits. But a less visible part of the system affects whether patients actually get seen at all, and it has less to do with the number of doctors in the world (too few) and more with the administrative work (too much) that happens between a primary care doctor writing a referral and a specialist's office getting a patient on the schedule. That gap, it turns out, is huge, stubbornly manual, and increasingly attracting serious interest from venture capitalists."
"For Patel, the issue became personal when his wife fainted on a flight with their young children. Even with his deep knowledge of cardiology and the specific devices that could help her, he says navigating the administrative process to get her appropriate care took far longer than it should have. "We have the best doctors, we have some of the best medicines, but the care gap is just so wide," he said."
"Alhanafi describes a parallel experience with his own father, who was referred to three cardiology groups after a serious carotid artery diagnosis. According to Alhanafi, only one called back within a couple of weeks. Another responded after the surgery was already done. The third still hasn't called. These aren't unusual outcomes, as nearly anyone who has tried to see a specialist in recent years can attest."
Administrative work between primary care referrals and specialist scheduling prevents many patients from getting seen. The gap is described as huge and stubbornly manual, with less impact from doctor shortages than from paperwork and coordination. Venture capital interest is increasing around solutions targeting this referral-to-appointment process. A co-founder’s personal experience involved a wife fainting during travel and facing lengthy administrative navigation despite relevant cardiology expertise and available devices. Another co-founder described a father referred to multiple cardiology groups after a carotid artery diagnosis, with only one responding promptly, another responding after surgery, and a third not responding at all. These outcomes are presented as common.
Read at TechCrunch
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