A Maltese AI company, EBO.ai, has partnered with a UK health informatics firm, Servelec, to bring self-managed services to thousands of NHS patients.
Through this partnership Servelec will integrate EBO.ai’s technology (called the ‘Rio Virtual Assistant’) into its electronic patient record system. This will give NHS patients accessibility to set hospital appointments, reschedule or cancel them in real time, using their favourite messaging channel, instantly and 24/7.
The breakthrough technology was initially introduced to the East London NHS Foundation Trust and the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust which operate community hospitals and inpatient sites and engage almost 20,000 professionals and staff.
“The Rio Virtual Assistant fits perfectly into the NHS’s five-year plan to place data, information and technology at the heart of its strategy to make the UK a global leader in the development and use of self-care solutions. Our partnership with UK’s Servelec is also particularly meaningful because it shows a major international player teaming up with a local company to serve the NHS in the UK better. Effectively this is an AI solution contributing to the transformation of UK healthcare,” said Gege Gatt, CEO of EBO.ai.
EBO.ai is a pioneer in creating platforms that automate the engagement between healthcare professionals and patients to solve the challenge of communication at scale. Servelec uses software to deliver better integrated care by providing solutions for interoperability across health, social care, education and youth services, connecting providers with citizens by enabling better communication between care providers.
“This development is also a meaningful step in EBO.ai’s journey to become an international company. Healthcare around the world is going through radical transformation as institutions move towards smart hospitals. We are proud that together with Servelec, we have been given the privilege to play an active role in defining the healthcare of tomorrow,” Gatt said.
EBO.ai’s Rio Virtual Assistant not only provides a quality customer experience for patients but also helps hospitals save time and money often spent on inefficient scheduling tasks. By allowing patients speedy and out of hours access to appointment rescheduling, the solution reduces avoidable missed appointments, thus addressing a major challenge in healthcare.
“It’s a win-win situation. NHS staff get to access updated patient records wherever they are, patients enjoy an easy way to administer their hospital activity, hospitals have less administration work to cater for and governments avoid budget seepage through ineffective practices,” said Gatt.