This is part of a series of conversations with CBS alumni building or leading businesses tackling the most pressing AI-related challenges and opportunities. Laurence Coman is the co-founder of AVO, an AI-based clinician support platform.
What is the business challenge AVO addresses?
At its core, AVO leverages AI to process patient data directly from the Electronic Health Record (EHR), maps that data against clinical best practices, and produces "copilots" that automate clinician workflows. The challenge we are solving is the tension between efficiency and quality; our technology enables clinicians to follow the latest clinical evidence while simultaneously automating the administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on the patient.
You’ve said that AVO’s mission is to “standardize care with love, not alerts.” What does that phrase mean to you personally, and how does it guide your approach to healthcare innovation?
To me, "love" in this context means deep empathy for the user. Historically, healthcare technology was built to appease the buyers of IT oftentimes hospital administrators who didn't always prioritize the clinical user experience. This resulted in clunky interfaces, documentation burden, and burnout.
We flip that script. We obsess over our users. We believe that by building an awesome product that doctors actually like using, we drive adoption naturally. When you treat the clinician’s time and expertise with respect (or "love"), you drive the ROI that buyers actually care about.
AI is reshaping medicine, but trust and usability remain big hurdles. How does a company in this space build technology that clinicians actually want to use, rather than another layer of complexity?
To build trust, we hand clinicians the key to the AI "black box." We always provide clear evidence and source tracing, showing exactly how recommendations are derived so they can follow the rationale step-by-step. Clinicians don't have to take our word for it; the proof is right there.
But trust alone isn't enough; it has to be usable. That comes down to invisible integration. AVO sits seamlessly on top of the EHR. Because we reduce cognitive load rather than add to it, clinicians come to AVO to do their work better and faster. In fact, we are seeing up to 90% efficiency gains with our users, while simultaneously making clinicians 15-30% more accurate in their decision-making.
What has surprised you most about building a healthcare technology company?
Either about the industry, the team, or yourself as a founder.
I was surprised by the emotional gravity of working in healthcare. For example, we get emails from clinicians saying, 'I got home in time to see my kids for dinner,' or 'I caught a diagnosis I might have missed.' The stakes are profoundly higher. The surprise wasn't just the difficulty of the industry, but how deeply rewarding the wins feel when you realize you're impacting lives and burnout.
Looking ahead, what’s next for AVO, and what do you see as the future of AI in clinical care?
We are approaching a point where providing care without AI augmentation will be considered unsafe, perhaps even malpractice.
Humans simply cannot synthesize millions of data points and shifting guidelines in real-time. In the future, the art of medicine won’t be about memorizing facts; it will be about empathy and judgment. AVO handles the computational heaviness of medicine so the doctor can handle the human element. We aren't just building a tool; we are building the new standard of care where 'un-augmented' medicine is viewed as a legacy risk.
What advice would you give to fellow alumni or aspiring founders who want to tackle big, complex problems in healthcare or technology?
Be ruthlessly honest about whether you are building a 'vitamin' or a 'painkiller.' In healthcare, 'nice-to-have' technology dies in pilot purgatory.
To succeed, you have to solve a problem that is so acute, the hospital system or clinician is desperate for a solution. Don't just look for inefficiencies; look for things that are actively burning people out or costing systems millions. If the problem isn't 'hair-on-fire' urgent, the friction of healthcare sales will kill you.
