🫡 Revolutionizing Military Medicine

Clearstep Chosen to Provide the AI-Powered Smart Routing Engine for the Defense Health Agency’s New Digital Front Door

Clearstep's Smart Access solution will serve as a cornerstone of the Digital Front Door program, intended to modernize military healthcare via unprecedented access to intelligent healthcare navigation tools.

CHICAGO, December 11, 2024 - Clearstep, a leading innovator in AI-powered smart access, triage, healthcare navigation, and capacity optimization, has been selected by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to power the smart routing engine of the Military Health System’s (MHS) new Digital Front Door. This groundbreaking initiative aims to revolutionize healthcare access and delivery for 9.5 million military beneficiaries.

As one of only four companies chosen from over 220 applicants, Clearstep will provide its smart routing engine to bring a trusted, clinically validated AI healthcare assistant to patients. Tricare members will have self-service access to the nation’s most prevalently adopted health system routing engine for symptom checking, virtual triage, care navigation, and call + voice automation tools to assist with healthcare decisions, smart access, guidance to the most appropriate MHS resources, and optimization of provider capacity across the MHS service lines.

Other chosen collaborators on the project:

• BDR Solutions: Developing the defense health data fabric
• Bluestaq: Prototyping the Unified Data Library (UDL)
• Ernst & Young: Creating a mobile access framework

"We are honored to partner with the DIU, DHA, and this collective of chosen collaborators on this critical initiative to enhance healthcare access for our nation's service members and their families," said Adeel Malik, CEO of Clearstep. "Our smart routing engine will provide a seamless, patient-centric experience that aligns perfectly with the DHA's vision for a modern, integrated healthcare system."

During the 12-month prototyping phase, the Digital Front Door prototype will be piloted at five Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs), serving approximately 260,000 beneficiaries. Successful prototypes have the potential to scale across the entire DHA enterprise, ultimately reaching 9.5 million beneficiaries at MTFs worldwide.

Key features of Clearstep's Smart Access suite that will power the Digital Front Door program include:

1. 24/7 AI chat-based and voice Smart Access agents: Beneficiaries can check symptoms, self-triage, navigate their healthcare needs, and schedule care.
2. Capacity Optimizer: Intelligent routing to qualify patient appointments and load-balance care team capacity to ensure all service lines operate at maximum performance.
3. Voice Automation: Providing Clearstep’s comprehensive routing capabilities in a voice layer that fits directly into the IVR systems of the MHS to help automate calls going to the call centers.

This partnership builds on Clearstep's track record of improving patient experience, patient outcomes, and clinician experience. Recently recognized as a top solution for each in the KLAS 2023 Emerging Solutions Top 20 Report, Clearstep continues to push the boundaries of AI-assisted healthcare navigation, now powering solutions for numerous health systems nationwide to solve access and capacity issues at scale. 

"The Digital Front Door program represents a significant step forward in modernizing military healthcare," added Bilal Naved, Chief Product Officer of Clearstep. "We're excited to apply our expertise in AI and clinical workflows to support the DHA's mission of providing world-class healthcare to those who serve our country."

Read the official DIU/DHA press release here

In other Smart Health Access news…

Virtual Care Screening: See It In Action 

Telemedicine and virtual care usage have stabilized at over 17% of all patient visits since 2023 and are expected to continue rising. Clearstep's latest Virtual Care Qualification and Routing feature helps healthcare providers address challenges such as underutilization, inappropriate use of virtual care, delayed care, access issues, and scalability problems. This AI-powered solution routes patients to the most clinically appropriate virtual or in-person care, ensuring efficient and accessible healthcare delivery. Watch this brief demo to see it in action.👇

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Meet Clearstep at ViVE 2025 

Planning to attend ViVE in Nashville, Feb. 16-19? Stop by booth #1845 to discover how leading health systems leverage our AI solutions to:

• Manage & optimize outpatient capacity
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