Q&A with James Bates: CEO of 

For more than 20 years, James Bates has been inventing and managing the development of revolutionary technology. He has been involved with most technological breakthroughs impacting consumers, giving him a unique perspective on how artificial intelligence will transform healthcare. In Arizona, James led Motorola spinout Freescale to nearly $1 billion revenues, solidifying it as a leader in advanced driver assisted systems. While living in Japan, he founded the Asian operations for Silicon Labs achieving revenue growth of more than $300 million. James speaks fluent Japanese and holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University.

Why is medtech is important to health care and quality of life?
Healthcare is a worldwide crisis. The cost is bankrupting governments, companies and families and still falls below what most of us think as human compassion and decency in its service. Unfortunately, to give that decent access and care to all, the costs are going up not down using traditional methods. Using automation in the healthcare field is the only way to make the math work and solve this most vexing problem. When a person is sick, nothing matters more than knowing what to do to get better. AdviNOW has developed such medtech through Hannah, our artificially intelligence-powered provider assistant.

How has Arizona has grown as a medtech hub over the last 25 years?
Arizona is unique in having some of the most advanced medical research right here with facilities like Mayo, Banner, Honor Health and Phoenix Children’s Hospital. This has provided the medical expertise that the large tech base has been able to access to create a medtech hub. It’s been exciting to see Arizona become not just a medtech hub, but a tech hub overall. I think smart people want to locate, associate and collaborate with other smart, innovative people. Arizona has certainly created an environment that is attracting such innovators.

What are the biggest medtech innovations coming out of Arizona?
Arizona has been a leader in Health BI and IT. Local companies that began with analyzing medical records have evolved into a hotbed of talent that has branched off into the AI and the personal health fitness space. Many companies are developing tools that can track various health measures and predict outcomes.

What was the catalyst for the launch of AdviNOW Medical and how has the company grown over the past two years since its inception?
My prior work experience afforded me the opportunity to live abroad. During that time, I got to see firsthand the healthcare systems of different countries. I saw the disparities between the haves and have-nots for even the most basic healthcare services, and I was concerned about the solution being unsolvable using the current system. A physician friend of mine shared how difficult it was for him to help his patients while keeping his primary care clinic afloat. Using my experience in AI and AR used in the automotive space, me and my team were able to help my friend, and many doctors like him, so they do not have to make compromises between patient care, making a living, and spending time with loved ones. And in doing so, I hope to achieve my own dream of re-inventing healthcare for all of us. We have since won contracts with the leading retailers, clinic chains and health hospital systems.

How is AdviNOW transforming the health care landscape?
We are remaking the healthcare experience! Today’s healthcare delivery system has difficulty balancing the competing interests of payers, health systems and providers to deliver reduced costs for patients leading to a poor experience for all parties.

We bring the AI-augmented, point-of-care engagement to every patient and provider. The AI collects the chief complaint and subjective symptoms and triages the patient to the most appropriate convenient point-of-care location based on HPI, the payer plan and availability of locations. (telemed, retail or provider-staffed clinic)

The fully automated patient encounter streamlines the patient interface and provider documentation in all point-of-care scenarios. Providers no longer need to be EMR and payer experts as the AI handles documentation in nuanced detail saving over 75% of total patient chart time.

A clinic’s profitability increases by over 50% by expanding patient velocity by up to 400% as patient wait time is reduced by up to 70%. With the barrier of full waiting rooms removed, most clinics see an average of 30% increase in patients/day. Constancy in standards of care across providers lead to comprehensive, medically necessary services and higher patient and provider satisfaction. Load balancing functions automatically utilize lower flow clinic staff to augment the busy clinics reducing wait-time and increasing the average total network provider to patient ratio.

Why is it important for AdviNOW to be involved in the Council’s MedTech Committee?
We are honored to be part of the Med Tech Council and collaborate with other companies in the Valley. This is the greatest advantage of being a part of the MedTech Committee—we are networking; we are creating awareness; we have opportunities to collaborate. All of these things are invaluable, even priceless.

What’s the best piece of advice you can share for a budding startup company in the medtech space?
Prepare to work very hard. There will be a lot of trial and error—lots of iterations. Seek out partnerships and experts; their insights and advice will be critical. Pay for top talent; it will save you time and money in the long run. Maintain a positive, never-give-up attitude; there will be lots of times you’ll want to throw in the towel after several very long days—and nights. Know that you are working toward a solution that will transform lives. There is nothing more gratifying or inspiring!

What are the top 5 innovations that are transforming how health care is currently delivered?
1. Artificial intelligence
2. Augmented reality
3. Patient monitoring
4. Digital wellness
5. Provider augmentation using all the technologies list in 1-4 to deliver the best care at the lowest price! That is AdviNOW!

How is virtual reality/augmented reality transforming health care?
There are many ways AR and VR are impacting healthcare. AdviNOW Medical uses AR to allow precision medical measurements to be taken anywhere. Imagine a world where everyone can really be seen by a provider or specialist anywhere.

What innovations are most likely to further transform health care over the next 10 years?
Artificial intelligence is going to significant change the way we engage with healthcare and how providers administer healthcare. Augmented Reality has already changed many aspects of healthcare from therapy, to surgery, to radiology. Healthcare 10 years from now will look nothing like it looks today. We will do much more from our home with exact precision evidence-based care. In-person care will be reserved for the chronically or severely ill, saving the healthcare system millions of dollars, and maximizing providers expertise—they will practice at the top of their license.

About AdviNOW
AdviNOW Medical uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to completely automate the medical patient encounter outside the actual patient-provider consult. ANM enables an objective physical examination with AR-guided objective measurements anywhere at any time while fundamentally reducing the cost to run existing clinics and is a common platform to drive point of care to the home. To learn more about AdviNOW, visit https://advinow.com.