Dive Brief:
- CVS Health released new details Thursday about a consumer engagement platform set to launch this year that will use artificial intelligence to help patients manage their health.
- The healthcare giant is building the platform, called Health100, in partnership with Google Cloud. The tool will collect patients’ data from across the healthcare ecosystem — including from insurers, providers, pharmacies, labs and connected devices — and help them find care, Tony Ambrozie, CVS’ chief digital, technology and information officer, said during a Google Cloud press briefing.
- The primary interface on the platform will feel like a consumer chatbot, he said. “But more than that, behind that, the AI will work persistently to monitor context, surface relevant education, anticipate needs and provide proactive guidance,” Ambrozie said.
Dive Insight:
CVS first announced plans to release the consumer engagement platform in December, including data and services from CVS’ wealth of businesses. The company operates thousands of retail pharmacies, insurer Aetna, pharmacy benefit manager Caremark as well as its own chain of clinics.
But Health100 aims to go beyond CVS’ current offerings and allow other healthcare industry players to participate “as part of an open ecosystem approach,” CVS said in a press release Thursday.
The platform will help users find and select providers based on their specific needs, Ambrozie said. It will also assist “as much as possible” with scheduling appointments directly within the platform and providing estimations of cost and insurance coverage.
Additionally, Health100 will recommend actions to take based on acute and chronic conditions, and the platform aims to utilize pharmacists — including those not employed by CVS — to help with care management, as regulations permit, Ambrozie said.
One significant focus for the platform is pulling together patients’ health data. Interoperability and data sharing is a long-term challenge for the healthcare sector, made harder by siloed data that doesn’t easily flow between providers and a reliance on dated technology like fax machines.
CVS plans to use several avenues to aggregate users’ data, Ambrozie said. For example, the healthcare giant will take advantage of data exchange through qualified health information networks under the federal government’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA.
CVS will also work with CMS Aligned Networks, healthcare companies that have signed a pledge to boost data sharing spearheaded by the Trump administration.
“We’re going to go very broad, working with anybody who wants to work with us,” Ambrozie said. “Including competitors. We need to compete with service, not on hoarding data.”
