DUOS debuts AI-based platform to connect seniors to healthcare benefits

DUOS+AI allows the platform to recommend healthcare services based on social determinants of health

It’s predicted that the proportion of the world’s population over 60 will reach 22% by 2050, and DUOS is a company on a mission to help them age with confidence and dignity, and to age independently, by connecting them the full suite of benefits offered by their health plan. 

The company's technology connects caregivers, health plans, and healthcare providers to maximize benefits engagement and ensure personalized support. Through DUOS, health plans are able to connect members with resources required to address aging needs, ranging from transportation or buying groceries to access to a primary care physician to lower costs on drugs.

Now it's going to be even easier to do that thanks to artificial intelligence, as the company unveiled its new AI-driven platform at HLTH 2023 in Las Vegas on Monday, just ahead of open enrollment season.

The new conversational interface, called DUOS+AI, uses a large language model that enables the platform to recommend healthcare services based on the unique social determinants of health (SDOH) and care navigation needs of a member, their caregiver, or care manager. 

"Opening access by addressing social determinants of health is baked into DUOS+AI. Leveling barriers to quality support, such as language, access to transportation, access to healthful food, and financial concerns, as an essential platform function," DUOS CEO and Co-Founder, Karl Ulfers, told VatorNews

"This increased ease of use allows easier navigation of members’ health plan benefits and provides actionable steps for members to take advantage of the resources available to achieve independence at any age."

DUOS+AI triages member’s needs and matches them with actions, such as relevant benefits, resources, and content. For care teams, the AI enables the company to match really complex and diverse patient needs with scattered plan benefits, government programs, and community-based resources. Meanwhile, for older adults, they are of course getting their needs met, and for the vast majority of them, at no cost.

"First and foremost, care teams using DUOS+AI develop an understanding of what the older adult needs to age independently. Then, they are equipped to recognize how to solve those needs and get them access to preventative care. This order is a staple of the process because if you don’t address the initial needs, getting someone into the care they need is a hill too high," said Ulfers.

"The DUOS+AI platform can understand a large majority of written languages and can even interpret slang as well as other vernaculars. Through allowing users to communicate with the platform in the language they are most comfortable with, we extend the reach of quality care into communities that have historically been barred from care."

DUOS, which is available in all fifty states, depending on health plan coverage, currently has 100,000 members; on the care manager side, over 100 people who have used the platform. And the company believes that the conversational interface will increase the number of older adults it can support as its model can interpret misspellings, slang, non-standard phrasing, and various levels of written literacy as well as non-English language support, opening care to people regardless of their background and experience with technology.

"To date, DUOS has focused on creating the connective tissue that establishes a true system of aging by aggregating data sources that have historically been fragmented and making them easy to navigate," Ulfers said.

"Next up for DUOS, is integration into the final mile services/benefits that older adults need, for example, the ability to directly schedule a ride, order the food they need, or get their appointment set up." 

(Image source: getduos.com)