Derek Streat, CEO and Founding father of DexCare, is an skilled entrepreneur with a observe file of founding and main six venture-backed corporations, 4 of which have achieved profitable acquisitions. His ventures have included scaling companies to over $100 million in income and establishing non-profits that profit greater than half of all kids with kidney transplants. Streat focuses on fixing large-scale, impactful issues by leveraging revolutionary information options to convey transparency and effectivity to markets, decreasing prices and delivering societal advantages.
DexCare is a care orchestration platform that optimizes healthcare supply and workforce capability whereas enhancing affected person comfort. It integrates with current programs to unify information, forecast demand, allocate sources, and information sufferers to essentially the most applicable care, delivering actionable insights and streamlined operations.
DexCare was born out of your private journey with healthcare, particularly in serving to your little one entry crucial care. How did this expertise form your imaginative and prescient for DexCare, and the way does it proceed to affect the corporate’s mission right now?
Fifteen years in the past, my three-year-old little one wanted a lifesaving kidney transplant. It was an arduous journey full of sleepless nights as my spouse and I struggled to navigate a fragmented healthcare system. We watched as our infant moved between specialists, surgical procedures, and intensive care, in the end receiving a transplant. By way of all of it, I noticed simply how lucky I used to be to have unfettered entry to care. For a lot of People, that’s not the case.
Over 37% of People stay in healthcare deserts. My very own expertise, mixed with years of working intently with healthcare programs, revealed a transparent have to bridge the entry hole for everybody. In truth, not each affected person must see a doctor – they want the best care, in the best place, on the proper time. And that perception led me to discovered DexCare, a platform designed to orchestrate the place and the way care is delivered. By decreasing supplier burnout, creating capability, and increasing entry, we goal to serve extra sufferers successfully. Incubated at Windfall, DexCare spun out in 2021 and now proudly companions with main well being programs throughout the nation, together with Texas Well being Assets, Tampa Normal, and Piedmont Healthcare.
You’ve efficiently based a number of healthcare-focused corporations. What particular challenges did you encounter in founding DexCare, and the way did your prior ventures put together you for launching this care orchestration platform?
From concept to prototype, to elevating capital and scaling, each startup faces acquainted hurdles. In healthcare, these challenges are amplified by expertise wars, lengthy gross sales cycles, cautious capital markets, and an ever-shifting regulatory panorama. Success calls for a cautious balancing act. Having based and exited a number of corporations, I’ve been within the trenches and gained firsthand perception into what it takes to construct resilient groups and merchandise able to thriving beneath strain. These classes turned important when launching DexCare and crafting a technique to succeed amid the complexities of healthcare.
My foray into healthcare started with Medify, an intelligence firm that used NLP know-how to create structured information from the huge, world repository of medical literature. The platform made an actual distinction for sufferers with uncommon illnesses, bringing collectively small, scattered populations into bigger teams with significant insights. At its peak, one in ten medical doctors throughout the U.S. relied on our data base to seek out remedies and therapies that might make a distinction for his or her sufferers. Finally, Medify turned a part of Alliance Well being, a number one well being community.
After Medify, I started tackling a distinct set of challenges, specializing in how know-how may instantly affect medical apply by means of C-SATS.
An AI-powered platform, C-SATS leveraged robotics and machine studying to judge surgical efficiency, offering surgeons with actionable insights to enhance their abilities and affected person outcomes. This work with AI—lengthy earlier than right now’s hype— opened my eyes to the uncharted complexities of integrating superior know-how right into a high-stakes setting like healthcare. Whereas the platform sidestepped privateness issues through the use of anonymized surgical footage, it surfaced deeper points, as surgeons had been apprehensive about being credentialed based mostly on know-how, because it had direct implications for his or her careers and livelihoods. This expertise taught me that introducing innovation in healthcare requires greater than technical experience—it calls for constructing belief with stakeholders and proactively addressing the unintended penalties that may emerge when know-how intersects with human lives.
All through my profession, I’ve centered on dismantling systemic limitations—scarce sources, disconnected information, and inequitable entry—by leveraging know-how rooted in practicality, not hype. When constructing DexCare, I prioritized information intelligence because the cornerstone of our AI functions. And this focus ensures clear, dependable, and unified information that powers how care is orchestrated, routed, and delivered. By exposing capability imbalances—figuring out overburdened suppliers and underutilized sources—we’re reimagining healthcare to optimize operations and to ship higher outcomes for sufferers.
DexCare was incubated throughout the Windfall Well being system. May you discuss some great benefits of growing a startup from inside a big healthcare group, and the way that formed DexCare’s development?
DexCare was born inside Windfall to unravel a key problem in healthcare: balancing provide and demand by leveraging current advertising and marketing, IT, and operational infrastructure. Being constructed inside a well being system gave us an intimate understanding of the twin challenges dealing with healthcare right now. For organizations, it is the fixed wrestle to fulfill rising care calls for with restricted sources. And for sufferers, it is the frustration of discovering care when and the place it is wanted. This attitude uniquely positions us to empower well being programs with crucial infrastructure for simpler digital discovery and entry, whereas concurrently optimizing system capability. And our incubation inside Windfall allowed us to refine the platform earlier than scaling to well being programs nationwide.
AI in healthcare has been heralded as revolutionary, but it surely has additionally confronted important hurdles. How have you ever seen AI evolve in healthcare over time, and the place do you assume it has fallen wanting its potential?
The rise of AI in healthcare has sparked each pleasure and warning. Whereas AI is turning into extra mainstream, important hurdles stay earlier than it could remodel the trade. A latest survey revealed that 96% of healthcare CIOs see AI adoption as a aggressive benefit, but integration challenges—like system interoperability and workflow alignment—typically stand in the best way. And with out seamless integration into the day by day course of, clinicians, physicians, and directors are unlikely to embrace these instruments.
The crowded panorama of over 14,000 AI-focused corporations provides to the complexity, making it tough for well being programs to separate hype from options that ship actual worth. Selecting the best know-how associate requires greater than evaluating options—it calls for options that combine easily, improve current workflows, and deal with real-world challenges.
However the core challenge isn’t simply discovering the subsequent software—it’s unlocking the potential inside healthcare’s current information. Sustainable programs rely upon harmonizing information throughout care data, workflows, and third-party platforms. Solely then can we deal with actual priorities, like liberating clinicians to deal with individuals over paperwork and shutting crucial care gaps. And that is exactly the place DexCare matches in.
DexCare makes use of AI to optimize healthcare supply by predicting and distributing care sources. Are you able to stroll us by means of how the platform’s AI works and the way it has impacted care supply at scale?
DexCare’s care orchestration platform harnesses superior information intelligence by consolidating key inputs—scheduling, modalities, utilization, areas, and prices—to find out the place, when, and the way care ought to be accessed. Our AI not solely ingests and organizes huge information units but in addition dynamically aligns care supply with affected person wants. As an illustration, the platform categorizes content material—whether or not it’s an article on seasonal flu, preventive care, or specialised companies—and matches it to essentially the most applicable pathways to care, all whereas understanding complicated taxonomies and synonyms. The outcome? By linking related content material to essentially the most appropriate venues of care, the platform ensures sufferers are guided seamlessly to the companies they want, enhancing each entry and outcomes.
The outcomes converse for themselves. DexCare allows 40% extra sufferers to obtain care utilizing the identical medical sources, drives a 24% enhance in new affected person acquisition, and saves over 34,000 hours of doctor time. By eliminating pointless steps and presenting clear, actionable decisions from the beginning, we’re reworking affected person entry and operational effectivity at scale—delivering measurable enhancements for sufferers and suppliers.
AI has the facility to automate duties and streamline processes, however it could additionally create concern round job displacement in healthcare. How do you see AI impacting the healthcare workforce, and what methods can mitigate these issues?
Addressing fears of job displacement in healthcare begins with readability. AI isn’t right here to interchange the human contact in care supply—it’s right here to enrich it. Expertise, together with AI, augments the capabilities of healthcare professionals, but it surely’s not a silver bullet for addressing the rising hole between rising affected person wants and a shrinking doctor workforce.
Platforms like DexCare exhibit how AI is usually a crucial software in extending the capability of restricted healthcare sources. By intelligently balancing workforce calls for, controlling prices, and optimizing capability, AI helps well being programs function extra effectively. This not solely ensures sufferers obtain the care they want but in addition alleviates burdens on suppliers, decreasing burnout and making a extra sustainable healthcare setting. It’s about constructing smarter, extra resilient programs.
What are a few of the unintended penalties you’ve noticed within the implementation of AI in healthcare, significantly when it comes to accountability for AI-driven errors? How does DexCare deal with these moral challenges?
After I was at C-SATS, we used robotics and machine studying to coach surgeons and to enhance affected person outcomes. Whereas revolutionary, this method raised vital questions on privateness, consent, surgeon autonomy, and the moral use of knowledge. These challenges highlighted an important reality: implementing AI in healthcare requires rigorous, standardized insurance policies to make sure the protected and moral use of the know-how.
In healthcare, there isn’t a margin for error—lives are at stake. This makes it crucial to determine clear pointers and frameworks that may function a ‘North Star’ to navigate uncharted authorized and moral questions. And accountability and transparency should be on the coronary heart of AI functions in healthcare. By specializing in information integrity and designing programs to boost, not overshadow, human decision-making, we are able to advance innovation responsibly whereas addressing the wants of the trade.
Whereas AI presents super potential for bettering entry to care, what steps do you assume healthcare programs have to take to make sure equitable AI adoption, particularly for underserved populations?
AI adoption in healthcare, particularly for underserved populations, requires a deal with information constancy, variety, and aggregation. In an trade beset by fragmented information silos, the flexibility to unify and analyze data is essential. Generative AI has the potential to create life-saving connections by integrating affected person data, inhabitants well being disparities, and propensity fashions to enhance prognosis, remedy, and care outcomes. Nevertheless, these developments rely upon utilizing bias-free datasets at scale to keep away from perpetuating inequities.
Accountability doesn’t relaxation solely with well being programs. A unified method is required, beginning with standardizing AI deployment at scale. Wise, national-level rules can guarantee AI improves our collective healthcare whereas, on the identical time, should keep away from overreach that stifles innovation. Overly restrictive measures danger hampering progress, however clear pointers on infrastructure, utilization, and information governance are important. These requirements might help deal with bias, mitigate dangers, and foster a system the place AI elevates care high quality for all sufferers, not simply the privileged few.
From a founder’s perspective, what recommendation would you give to entrepreneurs seeking to convey AI into healthcare, contemplating the distinctive regulatory and moral challenges of the trade?
Profitable entrepreneurs, significantly in healthcare, should not solely problem the established order but in addition reject the notion that the system is past fixing. The alternatives to enhance healthcare are immense, however when you dive deep into the self-imposed complexities and the hurdles the trade presents, the dimensions of the issues can appear overwhelming. True innovation requires resilience—the flexibility to confront these challenges head-on and to stay steadfast in your mission. Your imaginative and prescient to enhance care and outcomes should all the time outweigh the obstacles of scaling know-how.
Success in healthcare isn’t simply concerning the know-how – it’s additionally about aligning with the wants of sufferers, suppliers, and programs, and having the resolve to smile even when the trail will get steep. My recommendation: Keep adaptable, embrace setbacks, and deal with constructing options that remedy for instant, real-world issues.
Wanting forward, what are essentially the most thrilling AI developments you foresee within the subsequent 5–10 years for healthcare, and what particular areas do you assume AI will wrestle to penetrate?
Predicting the long run is difficult—it’s unsure and ever-changing. With 1000’s of corporations exploring AI from each angle, the potential is unbelievable, however so are the challenges. What we do know, nevertheless, is that AI is poised to essentially reshape how care is accessed, delivered, and skilled. One of the vital thrilling developments I foresee over the horizon is actually personalised drugs—tailor-made remedy plans and distinctive therapeutic “cocktails” designed to present every affected person precisely what they should heal and thrive.
Healthcare – lengthy hamstrung by fragmented information and outdated programs – is getting ready to breaking free. And by connecting affected person data, addressing inhabitants disparities, and utilizing predictive fashions, AI has the facility to create life-saving options whereas shifting the main target of healthcare towards higher entry and consumer-centric care.
We’re nonetheless within the early phases of this journey and navigating unknowns. Whereas we are able to’t predict the precise breakthroughs forward, we all know AI is steadily bettering how care is delivered—driving higher outcomes for sufferers and empowering suppliers. The progress already being made is inspiring, and I’m proud to contribute to this transformation.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to DexCare.
