Walmart announced this week that it had partnered with Health at Scale, a San Jose, California-based company that uses predictive artificial intelligence to help guide patients to providers based on their health needs.  

According to the vendor, the new software will provide personalized clinician recommendations to Walmart workers and their families who are enrolled in the company's health plan and who work in locations where Health at Scale is offered.  

"Finding the right provider is one of the most important health decisions a patient makes," said Health at Scale CEO Zeeshan Syed in a statement. "It is also one of the hardest. What we really need to optimize is the patient-provider match."  

Health at Scale representatives said they were currently unable to share details about where the service will be available. Walmart did not respond to questions by press time.  

WHY IT MATTERS  

Health at Scale says its technology will be incorporated into Walmart's health plan administrator's search engine and virtual care referrals for workers in some areas.

The goal, say the companies, is to make it easier for plan enrollees to find providers who are best suited for their health needs and care history. According to Health at Scale, its service uses AI and machine learning to model variations in provider outcomes across thousands of health factors, spanning 25 specialties, along with 34 procedures and imaging.

The company, which was founded by machine-learning and clinical faculty from MIT, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Michigan, aims to ultimately improve individual health results by guiding patients to clinicians.  

"From the beginning, we decided all of our predictions would be related to achieving better outcomes for patients," John Guttag, chief technology officer of Health at Scale, told MIT News in 2020.

"We're trying to predict what treatment or physician or intervention would lead to better outcomes for people," he said.  

THE LARGER TREND  

When Guttag appeared as a keynote speaker at the HIMSS Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in October 2016, he stressed the potential that AI and ML holds for efficiencies and quality improvements in healthcare.  

"The technology is in a pretty decent place for a lot of things," he said. "Is it going to be in a better place a year from now? Absolutely. The technology is improving by leaps and bounds."  

Of course, one of the most ballyhooed AI-enabled health technologies, IBM's Watson, has since faced challenges, with Big Blue ultimately selling off the vertical this past month.  

ON THE RECORD  

"Customizing services and treatments to individual needs is the next frontier in healthcare and is a major part of Walmart's commitment to helping associates and their family members find great doctors who consistently deliver the best value and quality care in their community," said Lisa Woods, VP of Walmart US Benefits, in a statement.

"We are excited to launch this collaboration with Health at Scale and are eager to see the impact that another innovative benefit like this will have on associates' healthcare experience and outcomes," said Woods.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.