Campus to Commure: University of California Irvine

MEDITECH LIVE 25 put the spotlight on making everyday clinical and administrative work simpler and more consistent. The throughline was clear: reduce steps for clinicians, use shared data to guide decisions, and track outcomes you can verify.

As a MEDITECH Alliance partner, Commure joined to showcase our Ambient AI solution, which is embedded directly within MEDITECH Expanse and Expanse Now. Leading MEDITECH-powered organizations are leveraging Commure Ambient AI to streamline clinical documentation, reduce administrative burdens, and enable clinicians to focus more fully on patient care within their daily workflows.

After three action-packed days, two key themes stood out that will shape how health systems evaluate partners and implement AI technology in the year ahead.

AI Adoption Starts in the EHR

Effective AI adoption starts with meeting clinicians where they work, in the EHR. When solutions are EHR native, share context from the patient record, and protect data quality, adoption rises and results are easier to verify. It also eases burnout by cutting context switching and the need for duplicate entries.

Inside health systems, the efforts to move past pilots to lasting adoption share a few traits: clear goals that matter to patients and staff, a small set of stable measures that everyone recognizes, ownership that spans teams and time, and learning cycles tight enough to reflect real clinical experience. In environments like that, pilots expand more reliably, training stays manageable, and improvements show up in everyday work.

Platforms Over Point Solutions

Another key takeaway from conversations at MEDITECH LIVE 25 was something Commure has been a proponent of since the beginning: point solutions are dead. Healthcare has long been plagued by technology systems that don’t talk to each other. Each point solution creates a separate place to click, a separate data feed to reconcile, and a separate set of policies to maintain.

Health systems are increasingly looking for partners that provide a platform-powered approach to reconcile data across EHRs and other IT systems. 

By centralizing login, access controls, data flows, auditing, and vendor support, a platform approach enables each new capability to build on the last. Systems can start with a high-value need, such as clinical documentation, and then layer on adjacent capabilities and workflows, like revenue cycle management, without redoing integrations or retraining staff from scratch. The data stays coherent, which makes it easier to prove impact and easier to spot where to improve next.

Platform models pair a stable core with open standards so new capabilities can be added without disrupting existing workflows. For health systems, this means more clinician time with patients, faster patient access, and tighter revenue performance due to less solution bloat and better integrations between tools. When it comes to adding new solutions, the process is predictable, risk is lower, and the total cost of ownership improves as more needs run on one foundation.

MEDITECH LIVE 25 reinforced a simple plan of action: meet clinicians where they work and build on platforms that compound value instead of distributing it.

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Want to see how we apply these principles to MEDITECH customers? Speak with a Commure product expert today.
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Take the Platform Approach

No-shows continue to be a challenge in healthcare, with missed visits draining healthcare resources and impacting patient care outcomes. An MGMA poll found 88 percent of practices reported no-show rates staying the same or increasing versus 2024, while only 13 percent saw a decrease. 

With AI and digital health development moving at warp speed, how can providers leverage recent technology to change this trend? But first, let’s explore the effects no-shows and cancellations have on healthcare organizations.

The negative impact of no-shows and cancellations
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• Financial loss for providers - Missed visits remove revenue that is rarely recovered, while fixed costs continue. Fragmented schedules reduce productivity, contributing to an estimated 150 billion dollars in annual losses in the United States.
  
  
• Wasted resources - Capacity goes underused when an appointment falls through. Clinician time and exam rooms often sit idle, which lowers throughput and raises per-visit costs across the day.
  
  
• Reduced access to care - Last-minute gaps are hard to fill, so backlogs grow. Patients already face long waits, with an average of 31 days to see a doctor, and no-shows push those delays even further.
  
  
• Negative impact on patient health - Follow-ups keep treatment plans on track and allow timely adjustments. Skipped visits interrupt monitoring and increase the chance that manageable issues become complications.
  
  
• Increased administrative burden - Staff spend additional time rescheduling, doing outreach, and fixing records. The extra work fuels burnout and pulls attention away from top-of-license care.
  
  
• Lower patient experience and trust - Repeated scheduling issues create frustration and erode confidence. Over time, engagement drops and patients are less likely to stick with care plans.

Effective strategies focus on better preparation, timely communication, and responsive support so appointments hold and care stays on track.

How AI-powered care journeys can reduce no-shows
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1. Advanced patient prep and education

Insufficient prep is a common driver of last-minute cancellations. Colonoscopy programs illustrate the risk, with studies showing about 26 percent of patients arrive with poor bowel preparation. When instructions live on paper alone, they are easier to misplace or misread as the date approaches.

Commure Engage brings preparation into the daily routine. The platform sends short SMS check-ins before a procedure and runs quick assessments. Based on each response, it delivers targeted guidance that reinforces the steps that matter most. It confirms understanding and tracks readiness, flagging issues early so staff can follow up and patients arrive prepared. The results of this speak for themselves, with Yale New Haven Health seeing a 54% reduction in no-show and cancellation rates.

2. Enhanced SDOH data collection

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are often the cause of missed visits. A national survey of congestive heart failure patients linked repeated no-shows with living alone, limited support, and unstable housing. These pressures can also appear as transportation gaps or low health literacy that make instructions hard to follow.

Most of this plays out away from the hospital, which leaves teams guessing. Commure Engage uses SMS to ask brief, plain-language questions about barriers, capture responses for the care team, and offer targeted help when a need is flagged. That can include ride options or financial assistance, along with prompts for timely follow-up. The result is a clearer view of why appointments are missed and practical ways to keep patients on track.

3. “Always On” AI-powered responsiveness

Proactive prep helps, but last-minute questions still pop up. Uncertainty about symptoms or prep steps can cause patients to hesitate and skip visits.

Many tools handle scheduling yet struggle with specific clinical questions. A patient asking what they can drink the day before a procedure needs clear, immediate guidance, not a generic script.

Commure Engage uses natural language processing to understand patient questions in plain language, then responds back in plain language through SMS, referencing clinician-curated content. It can confirm understanding, track unresolved issues, and route concerns to the care team when needed. Patients get timely answers, feel more prepared, and are less likely to cancel.

Explore how Commure Engage’s AI-powered care journeys reduce no-shows and provide a better overall care experience for patients.

See What AI Can Do

Tell us a little bit about yourself—what do you like to do outside of work?

I’m big into traveling and spending time outdoors! My most recent trips included skiing in Utah, hiking in Norway, seeing Hamilton on broadway, and diving the US Virgin Islands; it’s been a good year. When I’m not outside, you can find me spending time on the couch with my cats, dancing salsa at the studio, or singing in the local choir. 

Describe a day in the life of your role.

Everyday is different! Some days I’m in back to back meetings with prospective clients, some I’m primarily supporting my team, and others I’m on the road saying “hi” to anyone who will let me. I travel often, typically at conferences or other work trips a couple times a month.

What made you decide to join Commure?

After 10 years in clinical practice, I knew there was something more I could be doing to impact healthcare. Athelas/Commure is changing the landscape of healthcare technology, and I was excited to jump on the train. Plus, what an opportunity to challenge myself and solve new problems!

‍How would you describe the Commure company culture?

The primary word that comes to mind is collaborative. There’s a real sense that everyone is working toward the same mission, and people are quick to share knowledge, offer help, and celebrate each other’s wins! It’s an environment where teamwork is encouraged, and you feel empowered to bring ideas forward knowing others will build on them with you. The team balances high standards with genuine support, which makes it both motivating and rewarding to be part of the team. 

What advice would you give someone on their first day at Commure?

Come in curious and ready to learn. The first few weeks (even months) are a whirlwind of information, but it all comes together and you’ll have support along the way. It’s well worth the wild ride! Also, get to know your onboarding cohort. They’ll be your little family initially and having them to lean on when days are tough is game-changing. 

What has been your greatest accomplishment so far at Commure?

Whole heartedly I have to say my greatest accomplishments are seeing my team reach their goals. Being in a team lead role gives me the opportunity to mentor and support some amazing folks. I get just as excited (if not MORE excited) about their wins as my own, because at the end of the day, helping them succeed feels like the biggest win of all.

Interested in a career building the next generation of healthcare technology powered by AI? We are always looking for talented people across our departments.

Explore Career Opportunities

You likely had several options — why did you choose Commure?
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Aasish (Sai) Virjala, Forward Deployed Engineer (MS Computer Science): I chose Commure because the speed and impact here are unmatched. In big tech, projects can take months or years before making it to users, but at Commure I can write code today and see it making an immediate difference for providers and healthcare organizations. That pace of iteration, combined with working on problems that directly improve patient and provider experiences, made Commure the clear choice for me. Also, the mission to modernize healthcare infrastructure was very compelling. I was also drawn to the team’s combination of technical expertise and healthcare knowledge — it felt like a group of people passionate about solving tough problems that matter.

Edward Chang, Software Engineer (MS Computer Science): During my undergraduate education, I received internship experience at mature companies, both technical and non-technical. I learned that mature companies move slow and decided the best way to grow as a developer is to join a fast-moving company like Commure.

Aadit Trivedi, Software Engineer (BS & MS Computer Science ‘25): Commure’s mission of improving America’s healthcare experience is one that strongly resonates with me. Working on something you believe in is incredibly motivating - it makes even the hardest problems feel worth solving. I also wanted to work somewhere where I could have ownership and create impact. One of the beauties of working at Commure is I’m not just writing code - I’m collaborating closely with other engineers, helping shape various product features, and seeing how it affects healthcare providers in real-time. On top of that, it was the people at Commure. It’s been amazing working with such a passionate and hardworking crew of people that all care about solving problems as much as I do.

How have you grown?

Sai: I’ve grown a lot in terms of full-stack development and system design, but also in learning how to navigate real-world healthcare data challenges. Beyond the technical side, I’ve learned how to collaborate across product, design, and operations — which has improved my ability to think beyond just code and consider the bigger picture.

Edward: In terms of technical experience, I’ve grown a lot. The growth I’m most proud of is that I’ve become a lot more product oriented.

Aadit: One way I’ve grown is in my understanding of what it means to ship a product. The job’s not over when you’ve pushed code but rather when the customer uses that feature and gets some sort of value from it. With that in mind, I’ve learned to keep my ear to the ground and center solutions around the customer’s experience. Building features from the ground up has taught me to think holistically and take ownership of not just the code but also the outcome.

What is something you are really proud of accomplishing?

Sai: I’m especially proud of the work I did on the Scout project. It was a technically challenging effort, but more importantly, it directly aligned with Commure’s mission of empowering healthcare organizations with better tools and infrastructure. Scout helped us streamline claim processing, data ingestion, and provider workflows, reducing manual burden and making it easier for providers to focus on patient care. Seeing something I worked on so closely advance our mission and provide immediate value to healthcare partners was incredibly rewarding.

Edward: Beyond all the technical accomplishments that I’ve achieved during my time here, I’m most proud that healthcare providers who use our platform see that on average, their patients pay less out-of-pocket than before they transitioned to our platform. This helps to make healthcare more affordable to the average American.

Aadit: One of the biggest projects I’ve owned was revamping our entire user authentication system. This involved rebuilding core login flows and authorization methods with a key emphasis on security. Seeing the rollout go smoothly across our userbase was incredibly rewarding. It taught me how to lead a high-impact project end-to-end from design to deployment to monitoring adoption.

What’s something you love about your team that has nothing to do with work?

Sai: I love the sense of humor and camaraderie on the team. Whether it’s casual conversations, sharing random memes, or team lunches, there’s a genuine sense of community that makes the day-to-day enjoyable.

Edward: I love the team's choice to exclusively use pepe emojis.

Aadit: I’m a pretty big fan of our team’s obsession with boba. We place group orders every 1-2 weeks and explore different local spots each time. There’s nothing like a mid-afternoon boba to power you through the rest of the day.

What would you tell another Georgia Tech student considering Commure today?

Sai: I’d tell them Commure is the place to be if you want both technical growth and meaningful impact. You’ll get the challenges of a fast-paced tech company while working on problems that genuinely matter in healthcare.

Edward: A lot of tech companies move slower as they grow in size due to bureaucratic inefficiencies. While Commure also struggles with this, we still move much faster than other organizations of our size. You’ll definitely be able to progress in your career faster here (in actual skills, not just in name) than other organizations.

Aadit: I’d say Commure is a great place for you if you are eager to work on some meaningful problems at a high cadence and take ownership of new initiatives. It’s an environment that fosters creativity and encourages innovation at every level. You will get the opportunity to interact with our customers, understanding their needs and iterating on the best solution. At the end of the day, you won’t just be writing code - you’ll be redefining core flows within our healthcare system.

Interested in a career building the next generation of healthcare technology powered by AI? We are always looking for talented people across our departments.

Explore Career Opportunities

As artificial intelligence systems grow more capable, the question facing healthcare leaders is not whether to adopt AI, but how to deploy it responsibly. According to Commure CEO Tanay Tandon, effective AI integration in health systems depends on several critical factors: the nature of the task, the role of human oversight, the equity of outcomes, and the degree of collaboration with clinical end users.

“This is a fundamentally new way of interacting with technology,” Tandon explained. “Instead of explicitly programming rules and heuristics, you’re working with systems that have absorbed millions of documents and examples.”

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Co-Pilot and Autopilot: A Combined Model for Scalable AI

“One of the key emerging trends with AI in healthcare is that the tool functions both as a copilot and an autopilot,” according to Tandon. “One of the key emerging trends with AI in healthcare is that the tool functions both as a copilot and an autopilot,” according to Tandon. “Having both capabilities—copilot and autopilot—is, in my view, the dominant and defining trend we’ll see in healthcare over the next 24 months. It ensures humans are involved where they’re needed, and AI runs autonomously where it can."

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Commure employs a two-pronged approach to AI implementation. Some solutions function as assistants, requiring human validation, while others perform routine tasks independently, without direct intervention. 

For example, Commure Ambient AI supports providers with clinical documentation during and after clinical encounters, across more than 25 healthcare specialties. Tandon shares, “For tasks where you want a human in the loop—where bedside manner, clinical context, and interpersonal dynamics matter—you want the physician present, with AI acting as an always-on assistant, listening and pulling information in real time, as a co-pilot.”

In contrast, Commure Agents enable fully automated workflows across administrative departments, such as front call centers, patient scheduling, and even denial management. “The beauty of the autopilot model is that it can run lights out, 24/7, freeing up time, resources, and capital without human intervention,” shared Tandon.

Ethics and Equity as Operational Requirements

“One of the most important problems in deploying AI in healthcare is ensuring that it's done in a way that is ethical and representative of all communities, that it's going to be used to treat,” shared Tandon.

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Commure’s implementation methodology begins long before software goes live. Each system undergoes extensive simulated testing against historical clinical and administrative data to surface potential disparities or edge cases.

“One of the things we do at Commure is maintain a very stringent evaluation and testing framework. We virtually run, or shadow run, millions of previous appointments and claims before the technology ever touches a live patient in a health system," shared Tandon. "When done correctly, this means patients experience the positive benefits of AI from day one, instead of the chaos that often comes with other software rollouts.”

Putting the Brightest Engineering Minds on the Most Difficult Problems 

Commure’s product development model intentionally brings clinicians and software engineers into continuous collaboration in order to ensure solutions are truly fit to any healthcare environment. Rather than requiring physicians to adapt to pre-built interfaces, Commure builds tools alongside clinical end users.

As Tandon explains, “Most software today within health systems was not built by providers, for providers. It was built by an IT team somewhere, and then providers were expected to comply with it. It was seen as a compliance and administrative burden and tool, as opposed to something that empowered physicians and nurses.”

Reflecting on Commure’s founding, Tandon added: “What happens when you bring together the best software engineers in the world with the best physicians, nurses, and clinicians—and have them work together to create magic?”

Commure’s Forward Deployed Engineering model embeds experienced engineering teams on site, enabling more context-specific, user-driven deployment and adoption.

Addressing “Work Tax” to Free Clinicians to Focus on Care

Ultimately, Tandon sees administrative complexity as the core barrier to clinician satisfaction and system-wide efficiency, sharing: “There’s often a lot of bloat work, or what we call a 'work tax' at Commure, that creeps into the day-to-day life of physicians and caregivers. That problem is at the heart of the healthcare system."

The long-term vision is not to replace the human aspects of care, but to elevate them by removing the background burden. As Tandon explains, “Where AI is heading in the next 5-10 years is a full-on transformation of how we do work and the types of tasks we focus on versus the tasks LLMs can take on on their own. An example of this, humans are best in class at: Empathy, caregiving, and the physical attributes of care, which is being there for a patient, understanding their conditions, making a diagnosis, and sticking through with it. Where AI is great is all of the work happening in the background.”

AI in both co-pilot and autopilot modes offers a powerful opportunity to reduce the unsustainable administrative waste in U.S. healthcare, freeing resources to drive innovation that makes care simpler, more seamless, and more affordable.

“Healthcare is a $4 trillion industry. At least $1 trillion of that is administrative waste. If we eliminated that and redirected a trillion dollars back into the U.S. economy, that’s non-inflationary stimulus every single year.”

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Tell us a little bit about yourself—what do you like to do outside of work?

I grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I’ve always been someone who likes to stay busy and keep learning. Outside of work, I find myself exploring, whether it's new travel destinations around the world or just hidden gems here in San Francisco.

I love being active and outdoors, hiking mountains, skiing, or surfing. I have many cherished memories of hiking the mountains of San Francisco with my Dad and sister. Post hikes I enjoy eating my mom’s cookies, they’re the best.

I also have a couple of more unique hobbies. I was a Sommelier at a winery I worked at through university, which sparked a real passion for winemaking. I also love bringing people together by hosting social events and have even DJed at a few small, local music festivals.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I've always wanted to be a scientist. My grandfather was an engineer, and I was fascinated by the idea of inventing and solving frontier problems. As I got older, I realized that what he was teaching was in fact engineering (science applied) and I became drawn to the executional side of things. Not just discovering a principle, but tangibly building with it.

Describe a day in the life of your role.

Every day in Forward Deployed Engineering is different, which is part of what makes it so exciting. We believe that innovation is a contact sport, so my day is built around solving important challenges with our customers and partners.

This might look like meeting with doctors, administrators, or even patients to just listen and deeply understand their workflows and pain points. From there, we translate those human needs into technical deliverables and build those solutions. We’re the bridge between the problem and the technology, making sure what we build has a measurable, meaningful impact.

What made you decide to join Commure?

It's a funny story actually. I was working at a winery and met an investor who was visiting. I was trying to convince them to hire me at their venture capital firm. Instead, they told me about this incredible company called Athelas (now part of Commure) and suggested I look into a role there. That one conversation at a winery led me here, and I’m incredibly grateful it did.

How would you describe the Commure company culture?

I’d describe it with the phrase “long-term games with long-term people.” At its core, Commure is a group of people with a shared vision for the future of healthcare and the drive to build it day in and day out. We focus on a long-term horizon, which allows for compounding relationships and compounding impact on the problems we’re solving.

It's also a "positive-sum" environment where there's always an opportunity to take on new challenges and have real agency over your work. People are encouraged to be proactive and find new ways to contribute.

More than anything, this culture makes the work incredibly rewarding. If you’re going to unravel a problem, why not explore one as universal as healthcare? We have the unique ability to move beyond a linear impact, like a single doctor helping one patient. Instead, we build tools that can scale to improve care for an entire nation and, eventually, the world.

What advice would you give someone on their first day at Commure?

Commure has a culture of action. My advice would be to dive in on day 1, find a problem, big or small, and solve it. That first small win creates a powerful momentum that you can build on. You solve one problem, then move to the next, and the next. If we all keep doing that, we’ll look around one day and realize we’ve transformed the U.S. healthcare system for the better.

What has been your greatest accomplishment so far at Commure?

The entire journey has been an incredible ride, and I’m proud of so many things we’ve accomplished as a team. The work Cem, Umesh, Lauren, and team did rolling out our ambient AI solution for hospitalists with major health systems like HCA and Tenet stands out. Building the Sales Engineering and Forward Deployed Engineering teams from the ground up with Joseph. All of it has been a huge honor.

But the moment that really brought it all home for me was when my uncle was admitted to an HCA hospital that was using our ambient AI product. He called me afterward and was amazed at how present and attentive his doctors were. He had been to the same facility before our launch and said the difference in his experience as a patient was night and day. Hearing that from someone in my own family was the ultimate validation that the work we do here truly matters.

Interested in a career building the next generation of healthcare technology powered by AI? We are always looking for talented people across our departments.

Explore Career Opportunities

“There was a lot of worry that patients would not accept being recorded [with Ambient AI]. However, after many conversations with leaders across the country, we generally see the opposite. Patients are usually on board and acceptance rates are 95% or higher.” - Donald Lazure, PA, Enterprise Clinical Strategy Lead

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In this installment of Commure Uncharted, in-house clinical SME, Donald Lazure, PA, speaks from personal experience on bringing AI into the exam room without losing patient trust and what’s driving adoption amongst providers. 

Q: Let’s start with data privacy and security. Providers are hearing concerns about AI from patients, including potential HIPAA violations, breaches, and unclear vendor data handling practices. How should providers address these concerns? 

Donald Lazure:
As a provider, you lean on your organization and IT team to vet this. They need to dig into where the data is stored, onshore or offshore, what type of cloud is used, and the overall architecture.

The other piece is authorization and access, who should see the data and at what level. Any AI platform should let you tailor authorization to individuals and roles. A medical assistant may need a different view of PHI than a PA or an MD. Your office IT staff may not need PHI at all. This allows people to work at the top of their license while protecting privacy.

In Epic, for certain psychiatric notes, there is an extra security step to confirm you actually want to open that record, in case you mis-click. All this being said, these are valid concerns that people have, and they definitely need to be evaluated and vetted when bringing on an AI healthcare tool.

Q: Some patients may feel uneasy about being recorded during a visit. Should they be apprehensive, and how do you ease those concerns?

Donald Lazure:
I have been in the ambient AI space for a few years now. Early on, there was a lot of worry that patients would not accept being recorded. Across a couple of companies I’ve worked for and many conversations with leaders across the country, we generally see the opposite. Patients are usually on board and acceptance rates are 95% or higher, which has been a pleasant surprise.

Should there be some caution? Yes. Technology should be vetted and used appropriately. Large language models are being fine-tuned for healthcare with guardrails so they do not reach out to the entire web. Hallucination rates have come down, and models are better at contextualizing the conversation and the information collected. Patients also see AI more in daily life now that ChatGPT is widespread, so it feels like a normal technology advancement. I do not see this as a major stumbling block on the patient side, and I am happy about that.

Q: What does it look like when ambient AI fits well into provider workflows?

Donald Lazure:
The North Star is you walk into a room and speak, the system knows who is there, picks up voices, maybe even notices facial expressions or hand motions, and can act on what is said. We are not there yet, but we are a lot further along that path than I would have guessed five years ago.

A good integration lets the clinician care for the patient better by bringing the right information to the forefront. It adds clinical insight and context from past history without making you dig through the EHR, health information exchanges, lab portals, and everything else.

It also helps with decision-making. It can surface evidence-based guidelines and flag things like a medication that should be changed because of a QT prolongation on the last EKG or a drug interaction in the medication list. That kind of cue is better before the order is placed, so you do not have to undo work. And then everything needs to land in the EHR cleanly. The EHR is still the record of truth, so the ambient capture should flow in appropriately and simply, without extra steps and clicks.

Q: From your conversations with other providers, what tells you these AI tools are working—and what red flags make people pause?

Donald Lazure:
The strongest acceptance comes from clinicians who actually use ambient technology regularly. They report amazing satisfaction, reduced cognitive load, reduced burnout, and, depending on the level of integration, faster completion of encounters.

On the revenue cycle side, you generally see an uptick in what gets captured because clinicians are now documenting the full scope of work. Notes are more robust, so you are appropriately billing for what happened, whereas very short notes limited what you could code.

Where people hesitate when it comes to adopting ambient AI tools is integration. If it writes a great note, but I have to copy and paste sections into different parts of the EHR, then edit in multiple fields, it slows me down. If it does not bring additional care cues or past medical context to the forefront and only captures the moment in the room, there is still a lot of work to get it into the EHR. When integrations are not up to par, adoption drops because it feels like a slowdown.

Q: What needs to change in the EHR and vendor ecosystem to unlock real progress with AI?

Donald Lazure:
As EHRs roll out their own AI tools, I worry that limiting interoperability with software vendors will choke off R&D. Sometimes, there is a deal with a smaller company. Other times, the EHR builds it. They do not have the time and energy to match what startups in places like Silicon Valley and Boston are putting into health AI. I would hate to see innovation slowed because startups do not get the opportunity to plug in.

We also need to move away from point solutions. That is a big part of Commure’s premise: support the patient journey end-to-end, from first contact through discharge and financial clearance, with pieces that work together. Otherwise, you end up with small tools that do not talk to each other, and care gets piecemeal.

I would like to see stronger interoperability across startups, health systems, and existing tools. Give us a common code structure and a shared platform so these systems can speak to each other in context. Then everyone can do their best work in their lane and still connect across the choices a healthcare organization makes.

Q: “Change management” gets used everywhere. In healthcare, what does it mean, and how can it help health systems adopt AI with confidence?

Donald Lazure:
Change management can be individual, departmental, organizational, or even global. At the global level, it is asking why we keep doing things the way we do today. Why does the EHR have to be the record of truth? Could we capture everything in a database and query it with generative AI? Do we really need discrete fields, APIs, and HL7 feeds forever? Maybe each patient could have their own database. In a far-off future, that could even be something like a chip under your skin that you scan so the system can query it. That is way down the road, but it would be beautiful.

At the user level, I see this with some surgeons. They run from case to case and try to squeeze in clinic patients in between. They do not want to spend five or ten minutes learning something in the current EHR that might save them hours later. They just want to get it done the way they always have. A practical driver of change is seeing colleagues in the same specialty adopt a tool, get out of the office on time, and enjoy their work more. Getting a few key people to pilot and then show results to their peers goes a long way.

At the organizational level, change management is hard because you need IT resources and upfront spend on services and configuration. You make adjustments now and hope to see ROI later. That return is not always money. It can be better patient care and improved staff satisfaction. Those benefits matter, but they are harder to measure, which is part of why change management is difficult.

Q: As pressure mounts to justify AI investments, health systems are taking a harder look at where ambient AI can drive measurable value. Where should they focus?

Donald Lazure:
It is often a long-term gain. It is rarely one line item or one role you no longer hire. What you do see is happier end users, less cognitive burden, reduced burnout, and better retention. That is a hard ROI to pin down because you do not know when someone would have left. I have seen it quoted that hiring and ramping a new physician can cost around a million dollars to reach full productivity. That is a big number, but proving it out takes years.

You can measure revenue tied to more complete documentation. Compare providers using ambient to their own prior period, or to colleagues who are not using ambient, and look at captured revenue. That requires pulling data from the clinic, the revenue cycle team, and finance, which makes the analysis harder because it spans multiple stages of the patient journey.

There are time metrics like minutes spent creating a note, but those can be misleading. If a provider leaves the EHR open in a note field while multitasking, the time capture is not accurate. It is common to leave a note open, which is why those metrics can be tricky for ROI.

Q: Ten years from now, if we have a very advanced AI doctor, what role will humans play in care?

Donald Lazure:
It all depends on how patients receive this new technology. We could automate AI in certain instances, like low-level urgent care or for people who cannot make it to an appointment. But the clinician-patient relationship is meant to be ongoing. There is empathy, understanding, and education that we perform as humans. AI is getting better in that respect, and there are studies that say AI can score higher on empathy. So we will see. A lot comes down to patient acceptance. In a future state, one clinician might manage a few different agents that see patients, while the clinician provides oversight across multiple patients at once, which could be a realistic next step.

You likely had several options — why did you choose Commure?

Prachi Shah, Head of Product (MS Computer Science): I’ve long been passionate about the intersection of healthcare and technology, where innovation can drive meaningful change. Prior to Commure, I founded a startup that applied VR to brain surgery planning and worked at Google Health on AI-driven disease diagnosis. Yet the most significant impact of my career has been at Commure. The company’s speed, deep customer focus, and commitment to solving critical healthcare challenges have enabled me to help turn ambitious ideas into solutions that meaningfully support both clinicians and patients.

Shreyas Basavaraj, Technical Operations Manager (MS Engineering Design ‘22): I came across Athelas (Commure) when I watched a Y-Combinator Interview with Tanay Tandon and Garry Tan. It was such a powerful run-down of everything they were trying to do (back then). I was so inspired to see Tanay’s journey as an entrepreneur over the years that I immediately applied & really hoped I would get a call back!

Vincent Chang, Software Engineer (BS & MS Materials Science ‘22): Coming out of Epic, I knew the healthcare industry was incredibly complicated and that I wanted to continue to work to attempt to make it an easier space to navigate. Commure’s goal of simplifying the healthcare space aligned with my goals.

How did CMU prepare you for working at Commure?

Prachi: Carnegie Mellon prepared me by giving me both technical depth and a builder’s mindset. The rigorous computer science program taught me how to break down complex problems and design scalable systems, while the collaborative, entrepreneurial environment encouraged me to take ownership and move fast. Those lessons translate directly to Commure, where we’re solving some of the hardest problems in healthcare.

Shreyas: CMU prepared me through challenging technical and product-development courses, fast-paced deadlines, and collaboration with peers from diverse backgrounds—engineers, designers, and business leaders. Working across disciplines taught me how to navigate different perspectives, drive cross-functional conversations, and align on solutions. This experience strengthened my communication and problem-solving skills, which I now apply daily when working with customers, engineers, and product and operations leaders at Commure.

Vincent: CMU pushed me to be a good problem solver and taught me how to tackle any problems that came my way. Working at Commure feels similar in many ways. The day-to-day tasks are an ever-changing list of challenges, but what makes the work here rewarding is knowing that these challenges are faced by real users.

What excited you most about our mission or team when you were deciding where to go?

Prachi: What excited me most was the caliber of the team. From the very beginning, it was clear that Commure had assembled some of the brightest, most driven people I’d ever worked with. Everyone here is deeply committed to solving hard problems in healthcare, and the level of collaboration is unlike anywhere else. I knew that joining this team would push me to grow and allow us to achieve things that wouldn’t be possible alone. 

Shreyas: I was immediately drawn to the team's audacious goal of revolutionizing the legacy healthcare industry. Seeing such a forward-thinking vision championed by a young and energetic team was incredibly motivating.

Vincent: Commure’s emphasis on speed was very enticing to me when I was deciding on where to go next. I wanted more direct customer impact and I wanted to be able to solve the small problems as they came up. I also wanted quick decisions and quick solutions, rather than getting bogged down with never-ending discussions on theoretical issues.

How did you weigh Commure against more “traditional” post-grad options (e.g. big tech)?

Prachi: I actually worked in big tech, at Google, and enjoyed my time there, but decided that working at start-ups is a better fit for me. I thrive in smaller, high-growth environments, where you wear multiple hats, every day is different, and you do whatever it takes to get things done.

Shreyas: I’d worked for 4 years in MNCs (Oracle Health, KPMG) and as I came to grad school, I was really interested in exploring startups in the Bay Area, as it’s possibly the best tech ecosystem in the world. I really wanted to work in lean organizations to be able to own, grow, and take on big projects. 

Vincent: Coming out of ‘big tech’ at Epic, Commure was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a faster-paced environment and Commure’s value of speed above all else really resonated with me. I had been on trips shadowing healthcare users and seeing issues, but being unable to fix them with any urgency was disheartening.

What is something you are really proud of accomplishing?

Prachi: I’m proud of our entire product portfolio! Our revenue cycle product processes 10 billion dollars worth of claims yearly. Our Ambient product supports 10 million appoints yearly, which is 1% of all appointments in the US. Our Strongline product protects over 250,000 nurses from duress events and our patient experience product produces 100 million yearly patient touchpoints. Such scale and impact coming from one startup is something we should be extremely proud of.

Shreyas: I am really proud to have led the scaling of ops for a core RCM offering, Automated Patient Eligibility. This involved wearing a lot of hats flying out to meet customers to understand their pain points, growing comfortable with the ambiguity, and building infrastructure to support a growing team.

Vincent: I’m most proud of being able to solve customer issues quickly. A notable example is being able to push fixes out overnight during a two-day onsite trip and seeing users immediately using the new feature the next day.

What would you tell another CMU student considering Commure today?

Prachi: There are a lot of different products you could be working on. Why work on ad optimization when you can save lives?

Shreyas: Pick Commure if you want to take on ownership of solving problems from the ground up from Day 1. You will meet incredible talent who inspire you, make good friends, and get to be part of making healthcare better!

Vincent: No matter where you start working, there will be a learning curve transitioning from academia to the workforce. Commure is a great place to start because you’ll get a lot of opportunities to grow fast and exhibit your skills early, all while tackling real-world problems.

Interested in a career building the next generation of healthcare technology powered by AI? We are always looking for talented people across our departments.

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