With the rise in adoption of AI, big data, machine learning, transformative solutions have been made available to address problems that have been lingering for ages. Companies across the world have breathed life into their ideas by leveraging these technologies at the right time and for the right necessities.
On a similar note, we at Insights Care set out on a journey to seek the 10 most disruptive AI companies that are transforming healthcare, and we crossed paths with CareCru Inc., the creator of Donna™, a virtual dental practice assistant, powered by AI, that grows and manages dental practices.
CareCru aims to transform the dental experience to maximize the potential of every practice. Its mission is to empower dental practices with transformative technology to grow their business and deliver an exceptional experience every time.
CareCru has developed the most comprehensive platform in the market today. The company is continually developing new features and adding functionalities that provide value to dental practices and their patients. The company’s practice success team is available and empowered to help customers get full value from the CareCru platform.
“The first step is to deliver a report card on how the practice is currently producing or being managed. Once we establish state of the practice, we enable our biggest differentiator, which is automation. Donna reduces tedious and repetitive manual work while adding to the overall performance and productivity of the practice,” says Lonny McLean, the CEO and Founder.
Meet Donna™
Donna is an intelligent, automated assistant that helps staff and practitioners grow and manage their dental offices, whether individual practices or multi-practice groups. It enhances new patient acquisition via patient engagement and reputation management, improves practice productivity through workflow automation, and provides business analytics to underpin improved decision making.
By leveraging Donna, dental practices are able to grow and manage their business, while effectively enhancing their patient experience. The team at CareCru says, “hiring Donna is like adding three world-class team members to your practice—a front office assistant, a marketing specialist, and a practice consultant.”
By taking care of the more tedious and mundane tasks, Donna allows the front office team to focus on higher value activities, such as patient interaction and treatment acceptance. As Lonny puts it, “Donna is the front office’s new favorite team member because she sees an area that needs improvement, she rolls up her sleeves and gets right to work.”
Expertise Exemplified
Lonny is a technology entrepreneur with 20+ years’ experience building successful technology businesses. After selling his previous business, Layer 7, he was determined to enter the healthcare market. His investigation of the dental industry revealed that practices had a lot of interaction with patients yet were very poorly serviced with technology that could make patient communications more efficient and effective.
The technology being used was generally inadequate or outdated. There was little in the way of automation. Lonny recognized that practices could reduce time spent on mundane tasks, and enhance profitability, while providing an improved experience for patients and staff through proper development and deployment of technology. And thus, CareCru was born.
We asked Lonny to share his opinion on how the adaptation of AI in the healthcare discipline has transformed the healthcare industry and what more could be expected in the near future, to which he says, “traditionally, people think of AI as a lens through which they can make better decisions at more optimal times, typically taking the form of better analytics. But this is a lagging indicator, using past data.”
“We at CareCru see AI as playing a much more active role in healthcare by being able to truly learn from the data we have. Instead of pulling data or running a report, the entire application is learning how to make the practice smarter, to guide, steer and work on behalf of the practice. While AI will take a much more active role in optimizing the practice and making it more intelligent, it does not replace the need for human-to-human interaction in healthcare. AI enables clinical and administrative personnel to work more effectively, which enhances the healthcare system to the benefit of all stakeholders,” he adds.
Overcoming Adversities
Commenting on how CareCru fared through the pandemic, Lonny states, “our company has always embraced working remotely thus the pandemic has not dramatically changed our own workflow. We were, however, very quick to respond to some of the changes in the industry and introduced technology to enable safe re-opening of dental practices. Our Virtual Waiting Room minimizes human to human contact while at the same time streamlining patient intake. Patients love it. We have grown throughout the pandemic, more than doubling our headcount. COVID-19 has shone a light on the need for dental practices to adopt new technologies at an accelerated pace.”
Quality Today and Tomorrow
When asked what his advice would be to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the HealthTech sector, Lonny says, “there is a lot of money flowing into the space due to demographics (aging population) and the need to cut costs and improve efficiency and care in an overburdened system. Be innovative, move fast, find your niche, and set your sights on being the best in the world within it. These are principles that guide CareCru.”
Lonny envisions CareCru being the leading comprehensive patient engagement, workflow automation and business analytics platform in the dental industry. He believes that leading practices will rely on CareCru to build and optimize their businesses while benefiting from his company’s commitment to continual innovation.
