Dive Brief:
- Palo Alto-based startup HealthTap announced the launch of an artificial intelligence-powered “physician” designed to converse with users about their symptoms and triage them to the appropriate level of medical care.
- Doctor A.I. uses information from the user and their personal profile to compute the likely causes of symptoms, using algorithms and a clinical repository of real-world situations and physician expertise cultivated from 105,000 doctors across 141 specialties.
- Individual users can access the tool via the HealthTap app or website on any mobile device or personal computer.
Dive Insight:
While Doctor A.I. may recommend a user see a doctor or seek other care, it doesn’t diagnose the user’s condition — a fact that allows it to avoid having to comply with Food and Drug Administration medical devices regulations.
Roughly 10 billion symptom searches are conducted on Google each year. HealthTap wants to take that search to the next level, adding recommendations on next steps for diagnosis and treatment. The symptom triage tool joins a growing field of digital solutions aimed at changing the way people seek and get healthcare.
HealthTap CEO and founder Ron Gutman told Healthcare Dive via email recently said the company has been experimenting with its HealthTap app and with doctors and patients to learn how to provide people with access to physician knowledge “even if they cannot use smartphones or even websites. This is particularly important where there are many people in need who are physically challenged and are in many cases older, when it’s much easier to use voice rather than touch screens or keyboards.”