A Brock University graduate student is being recognized for his unique business idea after attending the Brock LINCubator, the university’s innovation centre which helps entrepreneurs.
Known as the Learn, Ideate, Navigate and Collaborate incubator (LINCubator) launched a new program called NAVIGATE which is a hands-on 11-week program to help individuals explore and develop their business idea.
Milad Nourvand, co-founder of CareCanada, and a Master of Science in Management student attended the program where he was awarded the $5,000 Dobson Entrepreneurial Excellence Prize for his business pitch for an artificial intelligence-powered search engine to help connect people with health-care professionals.
According to Brock University, the award helps to recognize and assist entrepreneurial excellence among their students who have start-up ideas.
CareCanada makes it easier for people to find the health care they need by providing a comprehensive list of what is available for everything from a family doctor to a care specialist, said Nourvand.
“A lot of resources are wasted in the process (of looking for a health-care professional), so we want to be the first initial point of contact for patients,” he said.
“When patients look for special care, they come to our website. So, they say, ‘OK, I have this allergy or I have this problem and I want to see a health-care professional.’”
Nourvand said using artificial intelligence provides a comprehensive timeline for finding a family doctor or specific health-care pro.
“We have all that information about most of the professionals on our website and we are feeding the data for their scope of practices,” he said.
“When a person comes to our website, they can input whatever they want, for example, what their symptoms are or why they want to see a doctor and our search engine helps them to connect with these health-care professionals.”
Nourvand said hundreds of people have been using the search engine already to assist in finding the appropriate proivder for their needs and that number is only going to grow.
“We now have around 400 patients (per day) coming to our website looking for care and we provide them with information in their local area,” he said.
“For example, if you are in St Catharines looking for a family doctor, we show you how many doctors are in that area.”
Revenue is an afterthought, said Nourvand, as he believes the true purpose of the business is to help as many people as he can to stay healthy and have access to quality health care.
“It’s not about the revenue, it’s about the lives of people that we are touching,” he said.
“We know we have to make revenue in order to survive, to fulfil our costs, but we are helping each person, and we are helping (improve) their lives. I find the meaning of life in these types of periods.
“This is one of the good reasons to wake up in the morning and say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to work,’” he said.
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