- WELL Health and its consortium partners have been awarded the
largest DIGITAL project to date for Health Compass II, an
initiative that will continue the advancement of AI and
interoperability in Canadian healthcare.
- WELL Health will not only serve as the lead commercialization
partner and first customer, but will also provide expertise and
interoperability to each consortium partner for an unprecedented
opportunity to innovate and develop new AI tools to better support
and enable healthcare providers to enhance patient outcomes.
- As part of the approval, DIGITAL will fund just over one third
of all project costs related to this project over a period of 4
years. These funds are appropriated by the Federal Government of
Canada to support technology
innovation.
VANCOUVER, BC and TORONTO, July 10,
2024 /PRNewswire/ - WELL Health Technologies Corp.
(TSX: WELL) (OTCQX: WHTCF) (the "Company" or "WELL"), a leading
company focused on consolidating and modernizing clinical and
digital assets within the healthcare sector, is thrilled to
announce the approval and advancement of a groundbreaking
$44M project, which will receive
$15.3M in funding from DIGITAL to
support investments in R&D and commercialization from other
partners for phase 2 of the Health Compass project, known as Health
Compass II. This monumental funding represents the largest project
DIGITAL, Canada's Global
Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, has awarded to date in
any funding category, marking a significant milestone in the
commitment and advancement of AI and interoperability in
healthcare.
Health Compass II, a collaborative effort with WELL Health, ORX,
HEALWELL AI (TSX: AIDX, OTCQX: HWAIF), Tali AI, Phelix, and
Simon Fraser University driving
critical contributions. Health Compass II aims to further
revolutionize the healthcare industry by enhancing interoperability
and leveraging AI to reduce healthcare provider burdens. Building
on the success of the initial Health Compass phase, Health Compass
II will introduce an innovative suite of four AI-driven modules
integrated through an EMR-agnostic mobile app, designed to engage
patients, automate administrative tasks, assist healthcare
providers with documentation, and enhance clinical
decision-making.
The project's components include:
- Decision Compass by HEALWELL AI: A clinical decision
support module to identify opportunities for earlier diagnosis
and/or improved care for rare and complex diseases.
- Patient Compass by ORX: A user-friendly
patient-facing virtual agent module that improves patient
engagement by 30% by enabling patients to find, get and advance
care with providers.
- SMART Inbox by Phelix: A back-of-house automation module
that leverages AI algorithms to streamline administrative tasks and
reduce manual administrative efforts for clinics by 50% or
more.
- Voice Assistant by Tali: An AI Assistant that employs
ambient sensing technology to capture medically relevant
information from natural conversations, with patient consent,
without taking provider focus away from their patient.
The combination of all four Health Compass II partner AI modules
into WELL's Provider Compass will result in equipping healthcare
providers with the automation of all non-billable patient
interactions and outputs of the patient visit (patient referral
letters, prescriptions, etc.); scribe the entirety of the
provider-patient visit; and provide clinical suggestions based on
the patient's medical record. Ultimately, enabling a reality for
clinics and clinicians to focus more on patient care by automating
the majority of day-to-day administrative tasks without having to
turn on their computer.
Hamed Shahbazi, CEO and Founder
of WELL, shared his excitement and gratitude about this
announcement: "This is a monumental milestone and we are honoured
and grateful to DIGITAL and Minister Champagne's office for their
commitment to supporting healthcare innovation and responsible AI
research. At WELL, we are committed to leveraging technology to
empower healthcare providers and reduce burnout by equipping them
with responsible AI and other tools to assist in providing quality
care and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Projects like Health
Compass II directly support this mission and are essential in
fuelling healthcare's digital transformation."
The Honourable François-Philippe
Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
shared, "artificial intelligence presents a transformative
opportunity for healthcare professionals to innovate and enhance
patient experiences, and Canada is
at the forefront of this pivotal field. Our government is proud to
champion the Digital Technology Cluster as it collaborates with
industry partners, like WELL Health, to reshape the delivery of
healthcare services for Canadians."
Taleeb Noormohamed, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Canadian Heritage shared, "from helping health professionals take
notes and assist in recording their diagnoses, to streamlining
administrative paperwork and facilitating the patient care
experience, this innovative project is using AI to build a better
future for Canadians. The government looks forward to the success
of the Health Compass II project and to other made-in-Canada innovations, that will unlock social
and economic benefits for everyone."
"Canada has a significant
opportunity and imperative to leverage our global leadership in AI
research into accelerated commercialization of that research into
Canadian AI applications and tools. These tools will help solve
some of the world's biggest challenges while accelerating the
growth of Canadian companies. DIGITAL's continued investment in the
Health Compass initiative is supporting improved health outcomes
for Canadians while also supporting Canadian innovators," said
Sue Paish, CEO of DIGITAL. "Since
2018, DIGITAL has worked to foster innovation, help Canadian
companies grow and spur private sector investment in digital
solutions that are making a positive difference in the lives of
Canadians."
Health Compass II is set to transform the way healthcare
providers practice by replacing traditional exam room workstations
with a clinician's preferred smartphone device, automating the
majority of day-to-day tasks without the need for a computer. This
initiative is expected to achieve a 25% reduction in healthcare
delivery costs for clinics and a 20% improvement in patient
satisfaction within the first two years post-implementation.
WELL Health will not only serve as the lead commercialization
partner and first customer, but will also be continuing to build
standards-based API interoperability, giving a competitive
advantage to each SME AI module developed. The consortium will
leverage WELL's extensive network, including their Provider
Solutions platform that supports more than 3,400 clinics and over
34,000 healthcare providers, including the distribution channels of
OceanMD (A WELL Health Company) and its' EMR assets, as well as
WELL's own clinic network across Canada that includes over 175 clinics and
greater than 1,600 healthcare providers including registered
physicians and other healthcare professionals. WELL's Provider
Solutions Platform is Canada's
leader in healthcare provider products and services, AI healthcare
solutions, and information security services, WELL is committed to
ensuring that best-in-class privacy, cyber security and ethical AI
implementation remains at the forefront of the commercialization of
Health Compass II.
The Health Compass II project is a testament to WELL Health's
commitment to empowering healthcare providers and enhancing patient
experiences across North America.
With this significant investment, WELL Health and its partners are
poised to set a new standard for the deployment of ethical AI in
healthcare, interoperability and EMR innovation, healthcare
provider workflows, and patient care. Health Compass II and other
healthcare innovations from WELL and its partners, will undoubtedly
contribute towards the improvement of health outcomes for Canadians
and the reduction of healthcare provider burnout.
About WELL Health Technologies
Corp.
WELL's mission is to tech-enable healthcare providers. We do
this by developing the best technologies, services, and support
available, which ensures healthcare providers are empowered to
positively impact patient outcomes. WELL's comprehensive healthcare
and digital platform includes extensive front and back-office
management software applications that help physicians run and
secure their practices. WELL's solutions enable more than 34,000
healthcare providers between the US and Canada and power the largest owned and
operated healthcare ecosystem in Canada with more than 175 clinics supporting
primary care, specialized care, and diagnostic services. In
the United States WELL's solutions
are focused on specialized markets such as the gastrointestinal
market, women's health, primary care, and mental health. WELL is
publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol
"WELL" and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol "WHTCF". To learn
more about WELL, please visit: www.well.company.
Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws,
including, without limitation, statements regarding the future
plans and objectives of WELL Health, the capabilities of Health
Compass II, and future funding commitments from DIGITAL.
Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical
facts and are generally, although not always, identified by words
such as "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends,"
"estimates," "projects," "potential," and similar expressions, or
that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could," or
"should" occur. While these forward-looking statements represent
WELL Health's current expectations, they are subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially, such as the ability to develop and commercialize the
Health Compass II amongst the consortium members, the expected
improvements to workflow efficiency, physician uptake, and the
utilization and deployment of the Health Compass II across WELL
Health's network. WELL Health does not undertake to update any
forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable
securities laws.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/well-health-announces-approval-for-historic-44m-project-the-largest-digital-project-ever-awarded-to-advance-ai-powered-tech-enablement-for-care-providers-302193793.html
SOURCE WELL Health Technologies Corp.