Health IT, Startups

This startup leverages AI and providers to focus on primary care

The company, GYANT, allows patients to utilize its AI-powered chatbot. The patient is then passed to a human medical provider who can deliver a diagnosis and treatment plan.

San Francisco-based GYANT is a startup that brings technology and medical providers together to tackle primary care.

The company offers an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that helps patients get the help they need. After using the bot, the patient is passed to a human medical provider who can offer a diagnosis and treatment plan. GYANT will later follow up with the consumer to ensure they’re doing well.

Patients can come to GYANT with non-urgent but common ailments such as a cough, migraine, back pain, fever, sore throat and ear pain. Currently, individuals can only get connected to a medical provider if they reside in California.

Here’s a closer look at how using the service works: An individual opens the GYANT app and responds to the questions asked by the AI chatbot. For instance, if the patient has a migraine, the app will ask queries like “Have you hit your head in the past three days?” and “What does your pain feel like?”

GYANT comes up with a likely diagnosis, which is shown to a live medical provider. The provider then gives the patient an official diagnosis and prescribes medications when necessary. All providers are licensed professionals in California. If a provider is not online when the patient finishes chatting with GYANT, the patient will get a notification when said provider would like to talk.

In the days after the interaction, the patient will get a message from GYANT checking in.

In a phone interview, co-founder and CEO Pascal Zuta summed up his startup’s offerings. “We believe that you don’t have to stop your life” to get care, he said. Wherever you are, “you can pull out your phone and start chatting with GYANT. We always say it’s like chatting with a friend who happens to be a physician.”

Zuta added that the San Francisco company works with organizations like health systems and payers. Such entities can buy GYANT as a service to offer their patient populations and members.

GYANT can also integrate with a system’s health records, Zuta noted.

Ultimately, the company’s goals include increasing access to care and keeping the doctor-patient experience compassionate.

The startup was part of the Cedars-Sinai accelerator’s fall 2017 cohort. Other companies that made the cut include Aiva Health, which offers a voice-powered care assistant, and CancerAid, which provides patients with a cancer management and support app. The 10 companies in the accelerator class were whittled down from roughly 600 applicants.

Photo: GYANT

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