Hero AI innovates with Azure AI reducing patient waiting times by 55%

Hero AI, a healthcare technology company, is addressing industry challenges by improving patient care and operational efficiency. The company aims to reduce patient wait times, shorten patient stays, and increase hospital capacity.

Hero AI chose to build on the Azure platform for its scale, agility, compliance, cybersecurity, and advanced AI capabilities. By leveraging Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI, Hero AI can innovate with a wide range of AI models and tools.

Deploying the Microsoft solution has led to a 55% decrease in patient wait times and gained 200 hours in emergency room capacity, significantly improving operational efficiency and patient care.

“Knowing that our platform sits in Microsoft Azure takes away a lot of the fears around security, networking and encryption for our customers.”

Dr. Devin Singh, CEO & Cofounder, Hero AI

Hero AI innovates with Azure AI to improve health outcomes

Founded in 2020 in Toronto, Canada, Hero AI is on a mission to empower healthcare patients and providers through its healthcare software platform and the innovative application of AI to solve pressing healthcare challenges.

Dr Devin Singh, CEO and Cofounder of Hero AI, explains, “As a junior doctor, I gained firsthand exposure to some of the inefficiencies that happen in care delivery. To lose a young patient from a preventable death is devastating – and it really lit a fire in me to ask: how can we use data and real-time machine learning to improve patient care?”

Creating a customizable platform for healthcare

Thus, inspired to complete a Masters in Computer Science, Dr Devin Singh cofounded Hero AI with Brian Lynch and Pouria Mashouri in 2020. By creating a highly customizable platform for healthcare organizations, Hero AI aims to provide a basis for AI-driven insights that have the potential to transform healthcare and healthcare outcomes.

“The differentiator in what we do is the highly, highly customizable nature of the Hero AI platform,” says Dr Devin Singh. “Each hospital has very nuanced workflows and the beauty of Hero AI is we can reflect those nuanced workflows while driving automation forward.”

Partnering with Microsoft for scale, security and agility

“We’re leveraging Microsoft Azure and a lot of the Microsoft tools to enable us to scale. Knowing that our platform sits in Microsoft Azure takes away a lot of the fears around security, networking and encryption for our customers,” emphasizes Dr. Devin Singh. “Plus, on Azure, the cybersecurity approaches have an incredible ability to be adapted for the different clients we rollout to.”

Another key advantage for the Hero AI team is the easy access to the latest toolsets around AI, which Azure affords them.

The Hero AI team leans into the full breadth of tooling available on the Azure platform, including innovating with AI tools using Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI.

Azure AI Foundry is a trusted platform that empowers Hero AI developers to drive innovation and shape the future with AI in a safe, secure, and responsible way. In an AI Foundry project, they can build with a wide range of AI models, functionalities and tools as well as test and deploy AI solutions.

“I love that ability to toggle between different models and experiment,” says Dr. Devin Singh. “We can ensure that the product we’re bringing to market is not only cutting edge but also highly customizable for our clients.”

AI Foundry facilitates scalability, making it easy to transform proof of concepts into full-fledged production applications rapidly. Tools to debug the application or compare evaluations to hone in on how it should behave are readily available. Plus, it’s easy for the team to integrate with Microsoft safety and security systems to confidently take new capabilities into production.

Using AI to drive meaningful change

At present, Hero AI’s innovation with AI is focused on reducing wait times for patients, getting diagnoses faster, reducing serious safety events and reducing mortality.

“For example, we have a use case that’s deployed at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to leverage AI modelling and decision logic to assess whether patients who come into the emergency department with mental health crises need to be consulted by psychiatry or not,” explains Dr. Devin Singh.

“Instead of the patient waiting six to eight hours for the consultant to go in, we reduce patient wait time by 55 percent. That’s giving the emergency room an extra 200 hours of room capacity within the past 6 months and we’re getting these kids the care they need faster.”

A doctor and medical assistant meeting with two patients in a visit room reviewing medical information on a laptop.

Getting the right tools into the hands of healthcare workers is critical not only to drive better performance and health outcomes, it’s also necessary for good, compliant data governance.

Dr Devin Singh states, “I don’t think many healthcare staff realize that by plugging into public tools like Chat GPT, that data is not staying within their jurisdiction. They may be breaching local privacy laws.”

“We recognize we have a role to play here in helping healthcare organizations understand how to adopt these technologies in a safe and responsible way,” continues Dr Devin Singh. “Although we’re a small start-up, we set a high bar in terms of patient safety, transparency and explainability. And these are all areas where our close partnership with Microsoft benefits us.”

“With the right data and the right machine learning modelling, you can build and deploy at massive scale the technologies that respect privacy and compliance in a way that doesn’t stifle innovation.”

Dr. Devin Singh, CEO & Cofounder, Hero AI

Guided by Responsible AI principles

Acknowledging it is operating in a very risk-averse industry with a complex and stringent regulatory landscape, Hero AI works closely with Microsoft and other stakeholders, including families, patients, and innovators.

“We know that Microsoft’s responsible AI policies ensure that patient safety, bias, ethics and equity are all considered in the solutions they take to market,” emphasizes Dr Devin Singh. “With the right data and the right machine learning modelling, you can build and deploy at massive scale the technologies that respect privacy and compliance in a way that doesn’t stifle innovation.”

“We want to catalyze the entire healthcare industry to drive impact with AI,” states Dr Devin Singh. “We’re proud to be one of the first companies that are actually moving the needle forward in a meaningful way.”

The team believes that the appetite for AI-driven insights and tools in healthcare will, in part, be demand led – in response to changing consumer expectations.

Dr. Devin Singh says, “Patients are already starting to transition to interactions with chatbot Copilot-type solutions. This creates an opportunity for hospitals to integrate these advanced AI tools with their patient-facing content. We can create a Copilot that gives patients and their families the interactive chat experience they want.”

A woman doctor on a stool facing a woman patient sitting on an exam room table. They are holding hands and smiling as they talk.

Excited for a future with Microsoft Copilots

Hero AI, with its mission to revolutionize healthcare, sees immense potential in Microsoft Copilot to transform how healthcare professionals deliver patient care.

“I think we’re just scratching the surface of what solutions like Copilot can do in healthcare,” says Dr. Devin Singh. “I’m excited by how Copilot might empower staff to automate aspects of their work and build really creative automated workflows.”

As Hero AI continues to push boundaries, it recognizes that scalability is key to making a widespread impact. The agility and robust infrastructure of Microsoft Azure are critical enablers of this growth. “As these innovations are increasingly adopted, the scalability and agility of Azure will enable Hero AI to scale up across Canada, the USA, and the UK,” Dr. Singh explains. “Microsoft is a key partner to enable that level of scale up.

The partnership with Microsoft provides Hero AI with access to cutting-edge AI tools and platforms that ensure scalability, compliance, and security, which are essential components for a healthcare-focused solution. Hero AI plans to expand its capabilities, leveraging Copilot to assist not just hospital staff but also patients through personalized virtual assistants, further broadening the scope of impact.

“As a clinician, I can tell you that we’re a little overwhelmed out there right now,” explains Dr. Devin Singh. “There are rising patient volumes and a relative deficit on human resources to take care of patients. We’re going to need solutions that enable us to expand our capability.”

“To have Copilot automation agents working alongside me as I’m going through my shift at the emergency department will help me provide more care for my patients and elevate the quality of care I can deliver. That will elevate patient safety and ensure we get the right care to the right patient at the right time.”

Dr Devin Singh continues, “If we leapfrog forward a few years, we’re going to see a world where clinicians have AI Copilots by their side, helping them to care for their patients when they’re on shift.”