Optima Global Health Pioneer Artificial Intelligence for Insurance in Canada

A Canadian healthcare company is changing the country’s insurance industry through artificial intelligence. Optima Global Health is launching a fully digitised system that will make life insurance forms more dynamic.

Through artificial intelligence, a machine can alert experts when an individual is in distress. Optima Global has partnered with Ellipse Synergie, a technology firm that specialises in artificial intelligence, in delivering this pioneering project.

The project’s lead engineer, Louis-Raphaël Tremblay, said the Optima-Ellipse Synergie joint venture will offer three lines of services: the Epsylio the Implicio and the Psylio. The Epsylio is designed for businesses while the Implicio shall service insurance companies. The third line, Psylio, will be available to the general public. The program provides a user-friendly process of filling out insurance forms while interacting with the user.

The three lines of service are hosted by ISA, or Assisted Support Interface, which guides user throughout the processing of completing insurance forms. All information exchanged between the user, and ISA are confidential. The questions asked by ISA are aimed at helping healthcare experts intervene if people need help.

The machine follows the standard process that clinicians follow in diagnosing conditions needing immediate attention. ISA will come handy to those needing psychological help but are too anxious to seek assistance.

According to Mr. Tremblay, the founder of Ellipse Synergie, ISA builds phrasing as the user answers its questions. “In schools, we can monitor people who are bullied and support them over the long term, while maintaining dialogue with them. We can also track the success of people with academic problems. We can measure young people’s metacognitive skills,” he said.

The program can detect whether a user is in a state of distress and probably contemplating suicide. Mr. Tremblay said that a large portion of the population could benefit from the service. “We are introducing a machine into the person’s isolation that can make contact with that person. If people don’t want to make the call for help, ISA can do it for them, as long as they give their consent,” he added.

The project, however, was not designed to provide psychological help, which can only be provided by professionals. Optima Global’s Jean –Claude Vaillancourt clarified that the program can only detect problems and encourage users to seek assistance from healthcare experts. “Once it accomplishes its mission, we pass the puck to the next player,” Mr. Tremblay said.

Photo by: Louis Smith