Happiness was contagious at Medzy when we talked with Simon Rivard, Chief Revenue and Product Officer, and Mathieu Roy, Chief Technology Officer. They happily told us their pharmaceutical startup has received $150,000 from the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation (MEI) as well as $25,000 from a Scale AI subsidy through MAIN’s Momentum service, funded by the MEI.
“Obviously, these grants were very well received. Right now, we’re working on a virtual pharmacist project that requires artificial intelligence research,” explained Simon Rivard.
The largest sum was allocated to Medzy as part of an MEI grant for an applied artificial intelligence project. The team is currently in the first phase of the project, during which they are working on the development of a smart triage tool.
“This will help us optimize our response time and redirect users to the appropriate section of our platform,” explained Mathieu Roy.
He also gladly mentioned that Medzy has seen significant growth in their customer base during the last year. In fact, it was this spike of several thousand clients that encouraged the Medzy team to start working on their virtual pharmacist project.
“We want to double our request processing efficiency,” added Mathieu Roy. “Some clients want to talk to a Medzy pharmacist, for a variety of reasons. We are currently working on a chatbot that will be able to classify requests with short descriptions.”
The Medzy team wants to use artificial intelligence to give instructions to their customers, all while maintaining user safety. A second phase will be added afterward to the virtual pharmacist project to introduce a medical decision-making tool to the system that will endorse the process.
“It’s hard to predict a schedule for this,” says Mathieu Roy. “For now, we’re focusing on the AI triage step. We would also like to offer a therapeutic follow-up option, but that’s in the future.”
+ $25,000
The Momentum subsidy was also given in support of the virtual pharmacist project.
“This funding will help us pay various consultants to add to the expertise that’s powering the project,” explained Simon Rivard. “Our hope is to build a team of data intelligence experts and attract a senior scientific advisor.”
The Medzy team would like to eventually count data scientists and a business intelligence expert among their ranks.
Medzy is a virtual pharmacy that aims to simplify their clients’ lives while offering below-market prices. Instead of picking up your medication in person, it will automatically be delivered right to your door. The team will also retrieve your prescriptions from your previous pharmacy, all while maintaining your insurance coverage.
The startup company has been coached by Cilex innovation catalyst Farid Dagher for over a year now. The coach is pleased by the funding granted to the company.
“This is great news! The virtual pharmacist is a project that will absolutely benefit Medzy’s growth. This startup will definitely become an important tech business and will help modernize the traditional pharmacy experience, in Canada and beyond,” added Farid Dagher, coach at Cilex.
Discover Medzy’s service offer at www.medzy.ca/?lang=en.
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