Connor Atchison – Inspiring Canadians Feature
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Connor Atchison: Making a Difference in Claims
Wisedocs’ Connor Atchison is a veteran with twelve years of military service under his belt. After serving as infantry under the Department of National Defense, Connor worked in healthcare claims administration which is where he saw the need for greater efficiency in medical claims.
After watching thousands of veterans move slowly through the claims process (including liability claims, short term, or long term disability), Connor immediately saw the need for change.
This led to the creation of Wisedocs.
Wisedocs is Connor’s answer to the manually intensive task of medical claims. Wisedocs is an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can quickly index, organize, and digitize medical records: making them easy to sort and easy to understand. Unstructured medical records can span thousands of pages, and processing them is often done by hand. This leads to long wait times, backlogs, and delays that are frustrating for everyone involved.
What’s so bad about paperwork?
The total time saved from sifting through paperwork amounts to more than you’d think. Medical records administrators, paralegals, medical experts, and insurers can get through a medical file over 80% faster when it’s automated. For the patient (and their family), this time savings can amount to real, tangible change – in a patient’s life, in their family, and in their future health outcomes after the claim.
Making this change was Connor’s goal when starting Wisedocs, and it remains a driving force behind the company’s mission and goals. After finding out about the piles of paperwork behind industry-wide backlogs, Connor set out to create a solution that addressed the root cause of delay.
The manually intensive approach to processing claims had a ripple effect. As the claim worked its way through chains of insurers, doctors, case managers, and patients, all parties had to access documents relating to the claim. This often led to communication errors, duplicate pages, additional manual work, and an overall increased demand on teams and longer waiting periods for claimants.
Smart automation means time saved for insurance claims
Automation as it was in the past had trouble dealing with handwritten or unstructured pages. Computers couldn’t recognize the handwritten characters, such as physician’s notes, indicating, for example, a patient’s name, height, and age. Independent medical examiners, who are often called up to provide insight into the claim, would have to sift through the record by hand, gaining a full medical picture before lending their expertise. This process could take days, or longer.
Artificial intelligence offered up the right tools for change. With AI, medical records can be processed efficiently – without sacrificing accuracy or professional expertise. The AI-powered platform of Wisedocs can sift through thousands of pages in a fraction of the time – digitizing, indexing, and organizing these documents so that they can be easily accessed by the professional in charge of the claim. The professional can then save even more time reviewing an organized, indexed medical record, to focus on lending their professional expertise in resolving the claim. Technology streamlines this process to take mere hours, rather than days.
Connor decided to rough together an early technological solution to the problem and take the challenge head-on.
“Originally, I wasn’t sure what an automated solution would look like, but what I did know – and what I cared about – was that Wisedocs was something worth building. I coded an original version of Wisedocs, then called Bear Health Technologies Solutions, and launched the initial product to the market.”
Wisedocs’ vision for smarter and faster claims processes
When it comes to the future of Wisedocs, Connor is clear about his vision for change. He sees a future where working with medical records faster is the norm – not the exception, and Wisedocs has certainly made strides towards that goal. After working with independent medical evaluators and other firms who use complex medical data, Wisedocs has expanded to work directly with legal and insurance providers. The company also works with workers’ compensation and similar organizations, automating the process behind thousands of claims.
It’s all in a day’s work for Connor, who remains ready for change. At the end of a slow, expensive process for claims is the months, weeks or days saved for claimants. While using automation to speed up medical claims might not get a lot of attention, it’s a major milestone in the process of improving an industry where patients often wait 18 months for the results of a claim.
Connor remains focused on reaching his goal. He says the perseverance, drive, and forward thinking he learned in the military continues to support him when leading his team. Working in the tech industry is certainly a shift from the traditional military environment, but Connor is a huge proponent of helping other veterans use these skills.
“Founders often find themselves elated one day and disappointed the next. The military taught me that any plan is only good until the line of departure, so it’s important to be able to adapt.”
Wisedocs is a blend of expert leaders and an engaged team, many of whom have had an experience with claims and understand the passion behind Wisedocs’ mission. They’re all focused on growing towards the same goal: finding a faster, easier way to handle claims.
Connor Atchison 
Title: Founder and CEO
Full: Connor Atchison is the Founder and CEO of Wisedocs, the smart way to review and summarize medical records. Connor is an experienced founder with a demonstrated history of working in health services, information technology, and management consulting. He aims to digitize a formerly manual industry through the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning to support tedious processes. As a former veteran with 12 years of military service under the Department of National Defence, he strives to change the process for filing health insurance and disability claims for insurance, legal, medical evaluators, and their claimants.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connormatchison/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnorAtchison_
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