A company out of South San Francisco is harnessing artificial intelligence to optimize physician scheduling and reduce clinician burnout.
Called Lightning Bolt, the organization was founded by Suvas Vajracharya, who serves as its CEO. In a phone interview, he explained that while working as a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a friend from high school approached him with a problem. The friend had become a doctor and was seeking to build an on-call scheduling system that was equitable.
Vajracharya, who was working on supercomputers at the time, took on the task almost like a bet, he said. He was able to fairly quickly develop a software program to help his friend. But then he went back to his work at the National Laboratory. It wasn’t until years later that he revisited the scheduling software project and turned it into Lightning Bolt in 2002.
The company’s cloud-based solution relies on combinatorial optimization technology. Its AI finds the best schedules for clinicians and allows them to easily trade shifts if necessary. It also offers advanced analytics and mobile access with secure messaging.
“Our system takes the rules or requirements of individual physicians … [and] produces a schedule that best meets all the objectives,” Vajracharya said.
Lightning Bolt uses a Software-as-a-Service model to sell its technology to customers. It serves everyone from small groups to large practices to health systems. The company currently has over 350 clients, including organizations like UK HealthCare in Kentucky, Boston Children’s Hospital, Sutter Health, Geisinger and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also serves customers in Canada.
Overall, Lightning Bolt wants to simplify the complex and overwhelming process of setting up an ideal shift schedule for doctors. Vajracharya likened it to solving a Rubik’s Cube.
“When they’re not able to solve that puzzle, one or several doctors are not getting a schedule that aligns with their work-life balance,” he added.
By zeroing in on this issue, the California company hopes to reduce clinician burnout.
“We’re hearing physician burnout is increasing at an alarming rate,” Vajracharya noted. “One of the factors that cause burnout is just not having enough say in what happens in their workplace, including their schedule.”
Its other aim is to help patients by letting health systems offer appointments in a more timely way. What it boils down to is a focus on supply and demand. The software produces a schedule that doesn’t force doctors to overwork, but also ensures there are enough physicians to serve the patients needing assistance.
Photo: baona, Getty Images
