XRAI Vision™

Agili8 solves the problem of adverse events and clinician shortages in regional, rural and remote areas, especially for underserved and disadvantaged Indigenous communities, which results in inaccessible and inequitable healthcare for these populations.

The World Health Organization has estimated a projected shortfall of 10 million health care workers by 2030. (WHO,2023) 

In Australia, Care Workforce Labour Market Study (2021) commissioned by the Australian Government predicted a gap of more than 200 000 full-time care workers by 2050. This staggering statistic has been verified by Health Workforce Australia with a shortage of more than 100 000 nurses and more than 2700 doctors just within the next three years from 2023. We are already feeling the pinch in remote areas of Western Australia, where we cannot recruit or retain clinicians despite offering extremely high pay packages of up to half a million dollars! The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) also predicted that the skills shortage in aged care alone could reach 110 000 or more in the next 10 years with a shortfall of over 400 000 by 2050.

The problem of clinician shortage is severe, as it causes burnout which in turn causes adverse events when clinicians are too physically tired and mentally exhausted to treat the ever-increasing demands of patients, particularly when we are faced with increasing aging populations, chronic diseases, pandemics, natural and man-made disasters globally. 

How bad is this problem? More than 134M patients are affected by adverse events internationally every year (WHO,2019), which means 4 in 10 patients are harmed. In US alone, adverse events cost the economy USD950B every year, which represents 40% of the total healthcare spend. (US Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality:https://bit.ly/3rC0C5V)

My second son lost his vision from adverse event - delayed treatment due to clinicians shortage and expertise gaps during COVID lockdown, depriving a gifted child from a bright future. I also had doctor friends who died from COVID trying to save others lives.

That's why Agili8 - an adjective meaning "Empower to work Smarter. Faster. Safer" is born out of the darkest adversities and why we are so purpose driven to Save. Protect and Transform lives.

Using smartglasses and/or smart phones for telehealth, our XRAI Vision™ platform connects trusted Health Workers (AHW), nurses and locums to offsite specialists ("frontliners") in real time, who can see, zoom, draw, and guide complex cases in full privacy, overcoming patient fear of looking direct or being touched by clinicians they don’t feel safe with. 

The offsite expert's virtual hands can appear in 3D merged reality through the smartglasses or smart phones to give precise instructions to the frontliner using "You See what I See" and "You Do what I Do" technologies on the patient's wound itself, which overcomes language, distance, costs, delays and socio-gender-cultural barriers. 

For instance, a trusted female health worker can work on a female Indigenous patient on gynaecological issues without the patient feeling embarrassed or crossing cultural taboos with a white male doctor. 

Basically, our technology enables a lower skilled frontliner to become the "hands and feet" of an expert far away, even in another country, while the expert can see and hear through "eyes and ears" of the frontliner as if he or she is there with the patient in an immersive virtual environment.

When there is no human or internet available, our AI assistance delivers digital workflows such as checklists and algorithms on demand, enabling clinicians to work handsfree on their own, without blocking the patient view.

Co-designed with Indigenous stakeholders to incorporate respectful cultural practices, our innovation enables rapid upskilling for prompt, precise and culturally appropriate care.

The target population are regional, rural, remote and Indigenous communities.

They are underserved due to remoteness, lack of infrastructure, transport and connectivity as well as severe shortage of clinicians, which made healthcare inaccessible to them. Historical events have made them mistrust Western medicine, doctors and hospitals. Racial discrimination and social, cultural and language barriers means they won't travel far to get medical help, often relying on sharmanism and bush medicine instead to seek cures which are easily treatable by modern drugs and interventional treatment. 

Unfortunately, this evasion of Western medicine often results in double mortality and morbidity rates in Indigenous peoples compared to metro populations in many countries, including developed nations like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and US as well as developing countries like Africa.

Our solution addresses multiple stakeholders' needs:

• For patients, we overcome long wait times, distance and socio-cultural barriers that delay life-saving treatment.
• For clinicians, we empower them with knowledge on demand with rapid upskilling on-the-job to reduce cognitive load and adverse events.
• For Health Service Providers (HSPS), we reduce costs and skills shortages by leveraging offsite expertise and AI assistance.
• Agili8 effectively closes the gap by treating Indigenous communities at the Point of Care with global ESG impact from less paperwork and patient transfers via ambulances and air transportation.

I founded Agili8 after my healthy son lost his vision from delayed treatment due to clinicians shortage and expertise gaps during COVID lockdown. Despite living next to the largest state-of-the-art hospital in Australia, healthcare suddenly became inaccessible during lockdown.

It was the 4th Professor in opthalmology who told us 18 months later, that the first doctor who misdiagnosed my son, should have sent him to Emergency for a 20 minute steroid infusion to prevent further loss of vision from his immune system's over-reaction to an unknown virus, instead of referring us from specialist to specialist. Imagine such a simple 20 minute steroid infusion could have prevented a lifetime of blindness that deprived a young gifted 16 year old from many jobs and a future!

My dad died young from the same problem, where his GP did not realise his severe symptoms of heart failure. It was only the 4th time in the same week before the same GP told my dad to take a cab to Emergency. But my dad collapsed at the front door of Emergency Department, pronounced dead because it was too late when the doctor could have arrested the issue much earlier.

As a young child, I was deprived of healthcare because my family was too poor to see a doctor. In fact, I never saw one despite being seriously ill several times until I almost died from dengue fever at 14 years old during an epidemic. 

It was my teacher who realised I was sweating, my skin showed weird rashes and my forehead was burning hot during school exams. My aunty was called to bring me to hospital where I nearly died but for this first and one time I had medical attention in Singapore. Getting the right specialist doctor to diagnose my problem and giving me the right infusion kept me alive today.

So I truly understood the problem I am solving. 

Our team is purpose driven to Save. Protect and Transform lives because most of us are from multi-cultural backgrounds and have been adversely impacted by the problem we are so determined to resolve. 

We have been working with the most disadvantaged, forgotten and remote Indigenous elders and communities in the hottest areas of the Western Desert to make virtual care possible for all, to close the gap of healthcare inequity and inaccessibility since 2021, together with Not-For-Profit organisations to co-design a virtual Model of Care using XRAI Vision™ to transform the way we deliver healthcare.

You can see our progress and even video testimonials of what Aboriginal people think about our work here:

https://agili8.com/news

The latest pilot we conducted was in the Kimberley, one of the most remote areas on earth, doing preventative telehealth checks using an unskilled non-Indigenous but trusted volunteer under the remote supervision of a metro GP to conduct preventative health checks for Indigenous children in Muludja Remote Community School.

This community has a population of 100, with 20 children enrolled in the school. Only 14 children are eligible to be included in the telehealth pilot who are within Yr 2-6 with good English literacy and communication skills. Those who are too young or with mental/physical disability are excluded as they will not be able to answer the questions posed to them to make an accurate judgement by the offsite GP.

Statistics Summary from the Kimberley Project:

8 have BMI 50% or lower (57% malnourished in the sample)

5 with sight issues (36% of sample withb one very serious as near blindness)

5 with hearing issues (36% of sample with serious middle ear infection that requires immediate medical attention)

The above small trial confirms the existing statistics and problems we have on a national scale, as these health inequities cause learning challenges which in turn makes it difficult for the children to thrive normally.

• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2018-19 revealed that 48% (248,100) of Indigenous individuals aged 15 and above experience disability of long-term health conditions that progressively deteriorate over time. Most of these disabilities could have been prevented with early medical intervention.

• Indigenous Australians have a 1.6 times higher likelihood of experiencing disabilities and 2.6 times higher likelihood of facing profound activity limitations compared to the average metropolitan Australian population. This leads to increased morbidity, shorter life expectancy, a greater burden of disease, and higher rates of preventable hospitalisations among indigenous communities.

• The prevalent disabilities among Indigenous children include physical impairments (63%), sight/hearing/speech-related challenges (47%), psychological conditions (23%), and intellectual disabilities (18%). These disabilities can be mitigated through early intervention measures.

• Historical trauma such as the Stolen Generation and socio-cultural sensitivities prevent Indigenous children from seeking Western medicine help besides the distance, costs and long wait times for a nurse or locum  to come around their communities. The school health nurse was supposed to come and do these health checks more than 18 months ago but didn't due to clinician shortage and unwillingness of clinicians to travel to remote Indigenous communities.
  

In terms of capital raising, we have raised over $1.3M from private investors in 2021 with paying customers and are currently raising another $2.5M for accelerating our commercialisaton, sales and marketing to bring this life-saving technology to the world as soon as possible.

More than $500,000 were funded by the government, including Western Australian Department of Health, Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and Department of Defence to conduct paid pilots in the most remote areas of the Western Desert, to prove our virtual Model of Care is embraced amongst Indigenous remote communities and can resolve the severe clinician skills shortages problem.

Agili8 is currently competing in the $5M Challenge as top 10 out of 100 global finalists to prove the best virtual care solution to close the gap for healthcare inequity and inaccessibility. We are collecting clinicial, quantitative and qualitative data at the moment, working with the Western Australia Country Health Service, the largest health service provider in the Southern Hemisphere, the East Metropolitan Health Service, the Royal Flying Doctors Service, the Panaceum Group (a state-wide private GP and allied health group) and an Aboriginal Medical Service.  We are the youngest and only finalist with the enabling technology to work across public, private and Not-For-Profit sectors.

The winner will be announced in October 2024 after the final TedX presentation. More information about the Challenge can be found below on the Government's official website:

https://thechallenge.health.wa...

We have also won multiple state, national and global awards in AI, cybersecurity, innovation, Health, Wellbeing and Care Economy, tech leadership and Tech For Good categories despite being the youngest start-up amongst other competitors.

Agili8 exists to do 3 things:

1. Save lives by overcoming barriers to healthcare

2. Protect, train and retain the healthcare workforce with rapid upskilling on-the-job and reducing their stress and expertise gaps

3. Transform the way humans see, learn and work in a collaborative, immersive environment where doctors can truly work without borders

We disrupt the way virtual healthcare, medical tourism, disaster relief and humanitarian aid are delivered in a radically different way with cultural inclusion and diversity.

We are applying to Solve to help us refine our business model and Go-2-market strategies as the public, private and Not-For-Profit customers all have different nuances that we need to work out. This includes different regulations and cultural differences in different jurisdictions.

We are also raising $2.5M seed capital to accelerate our commercialisation, sales and marketing so that this life-saving technology can reach all the remote ends of the earth to make healthcare accessible and equitable without discrimination.

Agili8 revolutionises virtual healthcare delivery in remote regions by rapid upskilling of humanitarian aid volunteers and Indigenous Health Workers (collectively called “frontliners”) and empowering them to deliver virtual care through XRAI Vision, a multi-award winning deep tech soution where the 3D merged reality hands and tools of a doctor far away can appear in the vision of the frontliners to guide them with precision on what to do and how to care for patients within their own communities. 

For patients, this effectively overcomes distance, delays and costs of medical treatments to regional, rural and remote communities as well as social-cultural-gender barriers to accessing Western medicine for Indigenous people. 

For health service providers, we reduce adverse events, risks, costs and skills shortages/expertise gaps by providing knowledge on demand to frontliners connected to offsite experts to assist in delivering healthcare virtually through XRAI Vision, retaining and protecting highly skilled workforce where they are without travel to dangerous war-torn and infectious areas, and thus reducing brain drain as well as carbon footprint with global ESG impacts.

This innovative virtual Model of Care (vMoC) is a global first initiative that has been co-designed successfully with remote Aboriginal communities in the deserts of Western Australia - one of the most remote places on earth, incorporating Indigenous culture and values into the way we deliver virtual care in a much Smarter. Faster and culturally Safer way. 

Our project and solution has shown promising positive impacts in:

• Enhancing access to quality virtual healthcare;
• Improving health outcomes for underserved Indigenous communities;
• Reducing clinician shortage problem in remote areas with virtual support from metro GPs or public hospitals;
• Closing the Gap to improve Indigenous health and economic prosperity with health promotion and education;
• Training Indigenous people to become skilled health workers to alleviate the global healthcare workforce shortage, giving them meaningful employment opportunities and looking after their own people without leaving their land where they belong.

Agili8 is one of the top 10 finalists out of 100 global contestants in the $5M Challenge by the State Government to prove with clinical evidence who has the best virtual care solution to Close the Gap for Indigenous populations where there is a severe mistrust of western medicine.

We have also won multiple prestigious state, national and global awards in Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, Health, Wellbeing & Care Economy, innovation, tech leadership and Tech For Good categories.

Our theory of change can be summarised below:

1. Upskill frontliners with XRAI Vision ----> 
2. Deliver virtual care with local people serving local communities ----> 
3. Faster treatment by trusted hands and preventable hospitalisations -----> 
4. Reduced costs, travel and risks of adverse events ------->
5. Reduced litigation and burden on healthcare systems

Problem statement: 

How do we create positive change to improve healthcare accessibility for regional, rural & remote communities, especially for Indigenous people?

Inputs:

Health service providers, volunteers and Indigenous health workers/trainees

Satellite providers, XRAI Vision solution, smartglasses and smart phones

Activities:

• Indigenous community engagement & awareness
• Patients, volunteers and clinicians as participants with informed consent
• Training frontliners on how to use smart glasses and smart phones to connect patients to offsite doctors, held as workshops & also in the form of a video they can watch online anytime
• Training clinicians to use our webRTC platform to video-call a frontliner and seek second opinion where necessary (which allows up to 6 virtual experts to login at the same time to one patient/frontliner case)
• Collaboration with hospitals, satellite providers and other network providers

Outputs:

• Training videos and well documented procedures (translated to Indigenous language where necessary)
• Improve patient outcomes and preventable hospitalisation rates
• Reduce costs of patient transfers and adverse events

Short term Outcomes expected of our intervention in Trials (6-12 Months):

• Increased patient accessibility to medical resources in regional, rural & remote areas
• Decreased patient resistance to use telehealth or fear/stigma of Western medicine
• Improved consumer/patient awareness of health education & disease prevention
• Improved consumer satisfaction in getting timely treatment without having to leave Country and family to get medical help in metro areas
• Reduction of carbon footprint due to reduced patient travel & transfers via ambulance & planes

Mid-term Outcomes (12-18 months):

• Increased familiarity and usage of XRAI Vision telehealth in such areas
• Reduced adverse events, premature deaths & disabilities in regional, rural, remote & Indigenous communities
• Skilled Indigenous/volunteer local workforce serving local communities without extensive travel

Long-term Outcomes (18+ Months):

• Reduced preventable hospitalisations
• Reduced socio-gender-cultural barriers to access healthcare
• Access to worldclass medical specialists from anywhere in the world on demand virtually in regional, rural & remote areas
• Enable Australian doctors to help other nations in need by couriering our XRAI Vision kits to needed war-torn or disaster zones when scarce medical human resources are insufficient or unable to fly there, who can support the local workforce virtually as offsite  experts 
• Thus revolutionising the way we deliver virtual care, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and the way humans see, learn and work in an immersive and collaborative manner without language barrier with "You see what I see" and "You do what I do" with 3D virtual hands and tools that guides the frontliners exactly what to do in time critical missions