At ZS, we believe that true innovation in healthcare starts with a deep commitment to patient centricity. Our dedication extends beyond client projects and commercial ventures into the realm of pro bono work, another area where we make a tangible impact on lives and communities. By leveraging our expertise and resources to support nonprofit organizations and healthcare initiatives, we prioritize patient needs and well-being. This commitment is at the heart of our mission to drive meaningful change. It reflects our core values and unwavering belief that every patient deserves the best possible care and attention.
A recent real-world example is our partnership with the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF). ZS is proud to support the IMF’s “Think Big Vision,” which aims to enhance the quality of life for all myeloma patients while striving toward prevention and cure. To help achieve this vision, we built a strategic roadmap to guide the IMF’s digital journey, equipping the foundation to meet the evolving needs of patients in the digital age. This includes launching a first-of-its-gen kind generative AI chatbot, Myelo, which helps the IMF better serve patients and their care partners.
Where passion changes lives
Our collaboration with the IMF brought together ZSers with diverse expertise across global offices, all united by a shared commitment to patient-centric care. One ZSer is Arpit Chopra, who joined ZS out of college in 2010 as a business technology associate. Over the years, Arpit has risen to the role of principal, developing deep expertise in sales and marketing for pharma clients. His leadership, experience and dedication were instrumental in guiding this project to success.
“Typically, when I work with pharma clients, the goal is to increase their brand presence to gain a larger market share,” Arpit says. “This results in a lot of patient analytics to understand treatment options, patient habits and healthcare professionals’ needs. As a nonprofit, the IMF focuses on increasing patient care and access to the best therapies in the market. This project allowed me to use the skills I picked up through my work with pharma clients to advise on and create a digital roadmap for the IMF.”
ZS is helping the IMF accomplish its goals by identifying key digital strategy elements designed to enhance the patient experience, including improved CRM systems, innovative gen AI and more. Recognizing the transformative potential of technology, IMF’s CEO, Yelak Biru, was keenly aware of how these advancements could optimize the IMF’s operations and outreach. This understanding sparked a natural partnership with ZS, as our technological acumen made us an ideal collaborator.
To support the IMF in its mission to enhance the quality of life for all myeloma patients, ZS developed a gen-AI-based chatbot for the IMF website. Myelo, the first AI-powered, patient-facing chatbot, is designed as a virtual assistant for patients, care partners and healthcare professionals. While this tool is not a substitute for medical care, Myelo provides compassionate support by answering frequently asked questions for patients, caregivers and providers navigating multiple myeloma.
Adnan Shaikh, an advanced data science manager in San Francisco, built Myelo with his team using ZS’s proprietary low-code/no-code AI platform, Max.AI. This innovative chatbot harnesses the latest technology to ensure a responsive, patient-centric experience that scales seamlessly to meet real-time needs.
Because of the rising prevalence of multiple myeloma (with an estimated more than 176,000 new cases diagnosed globally in 2020, according to a 2022 study in The Lancet Hematology), there has been an increasing demand for accessible and reliable information sources on the disease.
“The IMF has a med info line team comprised of nurse practitioners responding to a mass influx of global calls and emails with patient needs and questions,” Adnan explains. “By integrating this chatbot with data from various IMF resources including publications, journals, reports, audio, videos and more, we’ve built a tool with a responsible AI framework that provides on-demand patient education at a mass scale.”
Myelo ensures patients are not searching online but engaging with accurate, scientifically vetted materials provided by the IMF. This development makes the IMF’s resources significantly more accessible to those who aren’t experts, allowing them to confidently find and understand the information they need.
With our decades of expertise in patient health and equity, ZS built Myelo with a strong commitment to patient safety, health equity, responsible AI and accuracy. To ensure Myelo operates within safe and ethical boundaries, advanced guardrails have been integrated into its system architecture. These guardrails perform a multilayered screening of every user interaction, ensuring that the chatbot does not engage with or respond to questions outside its designated scope. It also avoids responding to questions that could lead to harmful outcomes, like misinformation, biased answers or conversations that should be held with a healthcare professional.
Myelo delivers unbiased, accurate responses based on the most reliable information available. ZS has implemented strict security measures to guarantee that all interactions and data handling processes are secure, compliant and confidential. Additionally, Myelo fully complies with relevant legal and regulatory standards, ensuring adherence to current data protection and privacy laws.
Reflecting on his nearly decade-long career at ZS, from an associate just out of college to a manager overseeing a collaborative team of experts, Adnan shares his enthusiasm for the innovative work with the IMF. “ZS has always been at the forefront of healthcare innovation and is now using gen AI to create meaningful solutions. Myelo is a testament to that. It’s thrilling to see how our expertise can make a real difference in patients’ lives, and I’m excited for what the future holds as we continue to push boundaries in AI and digital healthcare.”
Arpit, Adnan and ZS are eager to take the learnings from this project and apply them to future client needs, driving even greater impact. If you’re passionate about innovation and want to be part of a team making a positive difference, we invite you to apply and join us at ZS
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