A new Ridley clinic, PrevHealth, uses artificial intelligence to lower costs while improving care.
PrevHealth, founded by business entrepreneur Faisal A. Nawaz, has opened a second clinic at 800 MacDade Blvd. at Forest Avenue in the Folsom section of the township.
The hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The contact information is (267) 814-2533 or info.folsom@prevhealth.us.
The other location is in Burke, Va.
In an interview Friday, Nawaz said he has been involved in health care investment for a long time but over the past 10 years his passion has been bringing technology to health care to lower costs and better monitor patients’ continuing care.
He said health care moves slowly for patients. The technology advancements don’t always serve patients, Nawaz added.
“You still wait in a clinic, possibly dealing with a distracted doctor,” he said.
Nawaz said the loss of doctors in rural areas, as well as closures of hospitals, such as the Crozer Health collapse, have created a crisis where patients at the lower end are suffering.
“My premise was how technology can help us fill these gaps,” he said. “The economic model there is real demand. We need to bring in this supply.
Health care entrepreneur Faisal A. Nawaz, right, with the PrevHealth Ridley staff members, from left, Leanne Eisenhower, office manager; Ruby Parvaiz, director of administration and human resources; and Talyn Xystus, site engineer. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)
PrevHealth plans two more offices, one in Texas and one in Clearfield, Pa.
“With the closure of Crozer, this community needs a clinic like ours. We came in, got it set up and are trying to get the word out,” Nawaz said.
He said they are hoping to see eight to 10 patients a day to be viable. They will be welcome under Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance plans.
Patient experience
With doctors in short supply, Nawaz looked to nurse practitioners, who are well trained and can write a prescription.
To bring their skills to the level of a doctor, he looked to AI.
“We thought if we can use AI to help the nurse practitioner as a doctor, that would be a good contribution,” Nawaz said.
Acknowledging that AI is currently looked at by many in a bad light, and there can be issues such as giving the wrong information or gibberish, Nawaz looked to a collaborative solution.
“One AI is not enough. What if you use five at the same time — Claude, ChatGBT, Gemini, Perplexity and DeepSeek — let’s figure out a way we can make them all collaborate,” Nawaz said.
He spent two years building an end-to-end platform to integrate those models as well as impacting the entire patient experience through check-in, the patient examination, billing and monitoring of long term health issues.
A visit begins with an audio recording with the nurse practitioner. The five AI engines will listen in real time to the conversation.
“In the background, the (AI’s) will collaborate with each other,” he said. “As they learn the health issue, they begin to offer questions to the nurse practitioner to ask, to focus on the problem.”
He used the example of a patient coming in with a headache.
The nurse practitioner would begin by asking how long the headache has been an issue.
“Three days,” says the imagined patient.
Is it on one side or all-around?
“All around,” the patient states.
Now the AI engines suggest questions for the nurse practitioner to ask the patient: “Did you have vomiting?”
“These AI engines are very well trained. They have access to the best clinical guidelines,” Nawaz said. “There has to be consensus between the five, otherwise it will keep asking questions to get to the correct diagnosis.”
However, he said, the decision on the path of treatment is still with the nurse practitioner.
“We’ll never let AI make the decision,” he said. “To me AI means ‘assist and inform.’ To assist the nurse practitioner to get to the right diagnosis the first time around.”
The five AI engines also collaborate on a treatment plan.
The nurse practitioner is under the supervision of a doctor, who can be contacted with a question or problem.
In addition, the AI engines prepare the billing and labels the coding for insurance.
As a result, a clinic that may have had a staff of six or seven now has three. This lowers the cost and enables the nurse practitioner to see more Medicaid patients, who are often not favored due to limited reimbursement rates, he said.
He said many of those patients have chronic conditions that require monitoring. At the visit, the clinic will give chronic care patients iPhone-type watch devices to monitor their health. He said Medicare and insurance companies support that kind of preventive care.
PrevHealth opened a new health care clinic in Ridley that utilizes artificial intelligence. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)
The facility includes a small lab to provide on-site test results.
The three-person staff includes a receptionist/medical assistant, nurse practitioner and marketing person.
He said that in large medical systems two-thirds of costs come from administration. They are focused on expensive technology and expensive complications such as transplants, not primary care.
He noted that health care costs are outpacing inflation. He said one reason is the lack of preventive care.
Ruby Parvaiz, director of administration and human resources, said the clinic has multiple exam rooms. She also noted the clinic has capabilities for women’s health exams.
Ruby Parvaiz, director of administration and human resources. PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)
“We’re a family practice but we have all kinds of capabilities for women’s health,” she said.
She noted the office has seen a big change from its former life when it was a crematorium.
“From death to life,” she said. “Full circle.”