HealthPoint CDSS

Americares

HealthPoint CDSS

Empowering community health workers with AI to increase primary care access and improve patient outcomes.

Stamford, CT, USA

USA

Nonprofit

The availability of human resources for health is a major barrier to health equity across the world. The WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries. Where the United States, with its own health care access challenges, has 36 physicians per 100,000 population, there are countries like South Sudan with availability as low as 0.5 per 100,000. Enhanced access to essential primary healthcare could save 60 million lives over the next five years, however challenges with education, retention and funding of highly-trained healthcare workers are a major barrier. This crisis is amplified in rural areas and among marginalized communities globally. HealthPoint CDSS aims to empower non-physician healthcare workers to play a larger role in primary care delivery. This cadre of workers can be more rapidly and cost-effectively trained, with greater retention in the highest-need communities.

HealthPoint-AI is an AI-powered CDSS (clinical decision support system) application that allows community health workers (CHWs), to make initial treatment, diagnosis, triage and referral decisions in the absence of an onsite physician. Utilizing a Large Language Model (GPT-4) with a RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) design, the tool provides clinical guidance when provided with patient details such as vital signs, symptoms, medical history and physical exam findings. A constrained knowledge source is used to limit hallucination and misinformation, and to provide greater transparency and explainability. This model utilizes "Illness scripts" which are textual descriptions of disease-specific clinical reasoning provided by physicians who have experience working in humanitarian and low-resource environments. Americares has a roster of over 600 clinical volunteers and employed clinical staff around the world that can further help build this data repository. The platform is envisioned as a digital tool paired with a rigorous training program for community health workers (CHWs) to deliver a wide range of primary care services in a safe and scalable manner. The conceived workflow for this application incorporates a remotely available physician to provide CHWs with supervision, teaching and guidance when utilizing HealthPoint CDSS, especially when more complex clinical decision-making is required.

Over 4.5 billion people globally (nearly half the population) lack access to essential primary healthcare services. According to the World Bank, this gap is far wider in low- and middle-income countries, and in rural areas. Regions impacted by climate change, conflict, displacement, and poor governance face the most severe primary healthcare disparities. Americares routinely works with over 4,000 healthcare partner organizations around the world. We have the expertise to collaborate with health system leadership at the local level to best integrate the HealthPoint CDSS platform and have the greatest possible impact in the highest-need communities. Empowering CHWs who are themselves members of the community they serve to provide a wider range of health services, will allow for greater self-sufficiency within that community. There are also major implications here for elevating the role of women who comprise nearly 70% of the CHW workforce. By equipping CHWs within their own communities with an AI-powered CDSS, individuals will have better identification and control of chronic diseases, along with decreased morbidity and mortality from acute illness. Improved health and reliable access to care will enable families to focus on other critical aspects of their lives.