Introduction

Consig has been selected as one of nine startups in the inaugural Plug and Play Healthcare Accelerator in Orlando, backed by GuideWell, Orlando Health, and KPMG.

This puts Consig in direct collaboration with leading health systems and is strong validation of their focus.

Consig’s platform was built to solve communication challenges across industries, but healthcare has quickly stood out as the place where voice AI can make the biggest difference. Providers are buried under administrative work, patients often don’t get the follow-up they need, and both sides suffer.

As both a parent and a patient, that’s why they’re doubling down on healthcare—making communication more proactive so patients feel supported and providers can focus on care.

Consig are an inflection point. As they scale, they believe now is the right time to raise additional capital and expand our healthcare partnerships. Here’s where you can help:

• Introductions to healthcare providers who could benefit from proactive voice AI.
• Connections with investors interested in healthcare AI.
• Champions or advisors who can open doors or share perspective.

How RJ got back into Voice

Here’s the conference RJ mentioned, TADSummit 2022 in Aveiro Portugal, held at GoContact’s offices. GoContact had been bought by Broadvoice in 2021. This was the first time many people had visited Aveiro. described as the Venice of Portugal.

I discovered Ovos Moles de Aveiro: Aveiro’s famous sweet, consisting of a sweet mixture of egg yolks and sugar, often served in seashell-shaped rice paper wrappers. Cholesterol and sugar, what’s not to like!

It was TADSummit 2022 that brought RJ back into telecoms, communications and voice 🙂

The event I was talking about was eComm in San Francisco in 2009. Surprisingly the event’s website sort of remains, http://ecommconf.com/. You can see RJ and I were both speakers. I was presenting on the three dimensions of customer Pay-Space: cash, time and privacy.

Market Research

Technology has reached a point where we can use voice and its not awkward, it’s just like Star Trek. When RJ founded Consig, he knew the technology focus would be voiceAI. However, he had not decided on the industry focus. Consig’s first customers were in the outbound Healthcare domain.

Through market research RJ discovered patient communication sucks. As a patent, recovering from Lyme disease, I can attest to this problem. The pollution of the PSTN makes voicemail almost useless, voice messages are left and ignored as I know it will often be a scam.

Follow-up is a critical issue, I see it in my wife’s interactions with her primary care physician. Follow-up is lacking, and then things are forgotten. I love the messaging system my hospital uses, I can directly message my primary care physician and either her or the nurse or someone else at the practice will respond. But that’s just me.

Administrative Time Tax

RJ quoted some stats that for every hour of clinical time there are 2 hours of administrative time. I can confirm, my insurance company required I use a specific pharmacy and change my prescription to a 90 day, from 30 day, else they would not cover the medications. My Dr issued the new script, and the admin changed my default pharmacy as my regular pharmacy was not part of the 90 day script program.

RJ shared that a success criteria is not automating patients away from providers (doctors and nurses). Rather ensuring the patient receives the appropriate care from the provider when required. That is automating away all the admin, most of which even the patient has no idea about. For example, my pharmacy would need to change in moving to a 90 day script. The nurse did that for me.

Clinical care needs people, and its highly regulated. VoiceAI ensures the patient receives appropriate clinical care in compliance with state regulations.

RJ points out there are 550 laws and regulations that impact AI in healthcare around clinical conversations. For example in Utah, there is a regulation that if a chatbot is asked if its an AI, it must respond yes, and before that point, affirmative consent must be sort from the patient to interact with a AI around clinical conversations.

Consig are mapping out these complex regulations that depend on the type of conversations, e.g. clinical versus say payments.

Scaling up Consig

Consig are part of the Plug and Play Healthcare Accelerator in Orlando, backed by GuideWell. This gave them access to experts to help them navigate introducing AI into their workflows. Its early days and education is critical for everyone to benefit from new technology.

RJ sees Consig’s advantage in using the appropriate technology for the problem being solved, e.g. in identity verification (directed dialogue), payment processing (DTMF). For arranging an appointment the flexibility of LLM / GenAI is great. Lyle from Vida Global also made that point in our conversation with him.

Consig handles millions of patient conversations each year, they have a platform built to meet the unique situations health care providers face across that states in the US. It’s now a product, not a professional services project. They have bootstrapped so far, and are now seeking funds to scale-up Consig.

As they scale up their focus is the next few hires, and channels, e,g, EHR (Electronic Health Record) vendors. And delivering a solution that works within the existing systems, e.g. no new portals for a provider to log into. They are not serving hospitals directly, rather acting as a technology provider, solving the hard problem of Voice AI in healthcare workflows.

Their sweet spot is ambulatory care, medical services provided to patients who do not stay overnight in a hospital, taking place in outpatient settings like physician offices, clinics, and hospital outpatient departments. This type of care includes a wide range of services such as diagnostic tests, minor surgeries, preventive care, occupational therapy, dental, rehabilitation, and management of chronic conditions.

Wishing RJ every success for Consig though 2026.