LAS VEGAS—Artificial intelligence-powered medical assistants are poised to take over the showroom floor at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2025 Global Health Conference & Exhibition this week.
The latest product announced this morning at HIMSS 2025 is a tech-enabled virtual care assistant to help at the bedside for hospitals and health systems.
AvaSure, a virtual nursing technology and services company, unveiled a new AI-powered virtual care assistant for hospitals, dubbed "Vicky," that can interact directly with patients and triage their requests.
Hospitals and healthcare systems are under constant pressure to balance patient care with operational demands. Patients often struggle to get timely responses to their needs and clinical staff face overwhelming workloads. With AvaSure's "Vicky" AI-enabled avatar, patients can directly request assistance virtually, and, on the back end, the virtual care assistant can help healthcare providers quickly assess and prioritize those clinical and operational needs.
The inpatient virtual care assistant is anticipated to be commercially available in late 2025 and is currently accessible to select development partners.
The technology can bridge gaps in communication and prioritize urgent patient needs, according to executives. The solution supports healthcare teams by reducing response delays and alleviating clinician burden.
The AI assistant was built on AvaSure’s Intelligent Virtual Care Platform, OCI’s AI infrastructure offerings—including OCI Compute—and NVIDIA full-stack hardware and software tools, including NVIDIA Riva and NVIDIA ACE, as part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, the companies said.
AvaSure's virtual care assistant appears to the patient as an avatar named "Vicky" but also triages that patient’s question, need or request based on urgency and importance. The assistant can categorize patient requests into clinical and operational groups, and then direct those requests to the appropriate personnel or team.
If a patient reports chest pain, as one example, the assistant flags that as urgent and immediately routes that issue to the hospital's on-floor clinical team. On the other hand, a patient request to adjust room temperature is categorized as operational and directed to the maintenance team, AvaSure executives said.
All requests are centralized into a dashboard that is centrally managed, allowing hospitals to allocate resources effectively and respond to patient needs promptly.
AvaSure, with a team of 15% nurses, developed a virtual care platform for hospitals and health systems that blends remote and in-person care at scale. More than 1,100 hospitals use the company's AI-powered virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions. Last year, the company acquired Ouva's smart room solutions to expand its ambient AI capabilities.
Brad Smith, principal product manager of AI strategy at AvaSure, said the company spent hours listening to and observing patients, caregivers and clinical staff to understand their unique needs. "This deep collaboration has allowed us to build a virtual assistant that goes beyond simply responding to requests—it provides critical decision support, helping prioritize what matters most. By leveraging the power of AI, we are enhancing clinical workflows and improving patient care, creating a more supportive and efficient healthcare environment for all," Smith said.
“The future of healthcare demands smart, responsive solutions that not only assist clinicians but also improve the patient experience,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure in a statement. "The AvaSure Virtual Care Assistant is our response to the growing needs of hospitals and healthcare teams—enabling a more efficient, organized, and compassionate care environment. By combining the power of AvaSure’s Virtual Care Platform with OCI and the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform, we are delivering a transformative tool that not only empowers healthcare providers to tackle today’s challenges but also sets a new standard for the future of care delivery.”