The $44 million Well Health Compass II project, financed by the Canadian government and intended to further improve AI and interoperability in healthcare, has been approved, according to WELL Health, a digital health firm that connects and refreshes clinical and digital assets.
The programme seeks to improve patient outcomes, expedite administrative procedures, and facilitate clinical decision-making by incorporating four AI-driven modules into a mobile app for healthcare practitioners.
The initiative aims to reduce delivery costs and improve patient satisfaction within two years. DIGITAL will provide $15.3 million to WELL Health, the project’s primary commercialisation partner, to cover R&D and commercialisation expenditures.
WELL will also share its knowledge to support other consortium members in creating innovative AU tools that will empower healthcare practitioners and enhance patient outcomes.
With this financing round, DIGITAL is sponsoring the biggest Health Compass II initiative to far, contributing more than one-third of the project’s total expenses over four years.
Among the elements of the project are:
- A clinical decision assistance module called Decision Compass by HEALWELL AI helps find early diagnoses for uncommon and complicated illnesses.
- A patient-facing virtual agent module called Patient Compass by ORX increases patient engagement.
- Phelix’s automation module, SMART Inbox, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate administrative activities and minimize human labor.
- Voice Helper by Tali is an AI helper that uses sensing technologies to record conversations and extract important medical data.
“We are honoured and grateful to DIGITAL and Minister Champagne’s office for their commitment to supporting healthcare innovation and responsible AI research,” WELL’s chief operating officer and founder, Hamed Shahbazi, said in a statement. “This is a monumental milestone.”
“At WELL, our mission is to use technology to empower healthcare professionals, prevent burnout, and enhance patient outcomes by providing them with tools such as responsible AI and other resources to help them provide high-quality care. Initiatives like Health Compass II are crucial to advancing the digital revolution of healthcare and directly assist this goal.”
THE MAJOR TREND
To increase patient access to treatment, expedite healthcare procedures, and promote digital interoperability, WELL Health subsidiary OceanMD and HEALWELL subsidiary Intrahealth partnered earlier this month to integrate OceanMD’s eReferral technology throughout Intrahealth’s worldwide network.
Through the partnership, Intrahealth will be able to provide OceanMD’s eReferral system—which now handles 120,000 eReferrals and eConsults each month—to a larger number of healthcare institutions.
WELL, Health said in 2021 that it would pay $4.5 million with a conditional earn-out of up to $3.5 million dependent on operating success to buy Aware MD, the firm that owns the EHR Cerebrum, which focuses on cardiology and disease specialities.
In the same year WELL Ventures was established, WELL Health Technologies invested in startup digital health firms. The investment business, a fully owned subsidiary of WELL, specializes in supporting Canadian entrepreneurs in developing practitioner enablement tools and technology.
Source: Mobihealthnews
