Integrating a cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform like Tucuvi into existing healthcare IT environments requires a thoughtful, phased approach. Healthcare IT leaders often deal with complex legacy systems, strict data privacy regulations, and user adoption challenges. Yet, successful integrations can dramatically amplify efficiency and patient care capacity.
Tucuvi’s safe and clinically validated AI Agent, LOLA, is designed to seamlessly integrate into existing healthcare workflows, ensuring that AI enhances—not disrupts—patient management. At Tucuvi, we understand that the key to successful adoption isn’t just offering advanced technology; it's about ensuring that its integration is secure, effective, and smooth.
The integration journey is divided into three clear phases, addressing healthcare IT complexities while ensuring minimal disruption. Tucuvi’s AI supports the full patient journey, from patient access to vaccination campaigns or post-discharge follow-ups. From the integration perspective, that means that the system must be integrated with different modules from the EHR, or even different systems (telephony system, CRM, etc). We’ll explore these examples throughout this post.
Tucuvi’s platform adapts to the technological realities of each healthcare organization. Not every hospital or clinic can jump straight into a full API integration on day one. A phased approach, starting with zero technical integration and progressing toward deep interoperability, ensures a smooth transition.
This gradual strategy minimizes disruption, delivers quick wins, and builds trust with IT stakeholders at each step. The following breakdown outlines Tucuvi’s integration phases, from Phase 0 (no integration) to Phase 2 (full integration), and what each entails.
In Phase 0, Tucuvi can deliver value immediately without any integration. This is essentially a standalone use of LOLA, Tucuvi’s AI Agent to automate clinical phone calls.
This is ideal for pilot programs or quick deployments. For example, a heart failure clinic could upload a CSV of recently discharged patients for a follow-up call program. Care teams simply upload patient data (e.g. a list of patients to call) via a secure web dashboard (Tucuvi Dashboard). LOLA will then call these patients using the configured clinical protocol, and deliver a structured summary of the calls to the care team, prioritizing patients based on risk stratification—all within the same dashboard and with reports ready to export to the EHR. If the care team wants to directly phone calls to the high risk patients to intervene, they can also do it in the Dashboard, where an embedded AI scribe will make a clinical note of those calls that can be directly attached to the EHR too.
This phase requires no IT workload – it’s plug-and-play. Clinicians often start here to validate outcomes and workflow fit. Phase 0 proves the concept with minimal overhead. It’s worth noting that even as a standalone tool, Tucuvi is built with healthcare standards in mind (e.g. every structured information contains SNOMED-CT codes and FHIR is used as a default standard), ensuring that any data collected can later be migrated or integrated. This phase builds confidence and generates initial ROI without requiring IT work upfront (besides basic firewall clearance) – a major advantage in an industry where quick results are rare.
Phase 1 is about automating the tedious parts (data entry and transfer) while still keeping systems loosely coupled.
It establishes automated, but batch-oriented, integration between Tucuvi and the health system’s records. In this phase, we set up secure file transfer (sFTP) workflows to exchange data on a scheduled basis. For instance, the hospital’s IT team can schedule a daily export of eligible patients (with relevant contact info and program enrollment details) from the EHR to Tucuvi’s sFTP server.
Tucuvi’s platform will ingest this file (which can be in different formats like CSV or HL7 v2) and LOLA automatically initiate calls for each patient as configured. After each call or at defined intervals, Tucuvi generates result files – e.g. call summaries, alerts, or documentation – and drops them back onto a secure sFTP location for the hospital to retrieve.
The EHR can then automatically import these results (updating a patient’s record, creating a note, or flagging follow-up tasks) or make them available for staff review. This one-day sync cycle significantly reduces manual work: clinicians no longer need to hand-enter call outcomes; the data flows into the EHR in bulk.
Phase 1 integration requires coordination with IT for sFTP setup and data mapping, but it avoids complex real-time interfacing. It uses well-established patterns that many hospitals are comfortable with – leveraging secure file exchange and possibly existing HL7 interface engines.
Phase 1 integration using secure file transfer: the EHR (source system) exports data to an integration service or directly to Tucuvi via a VPN/SFTP channel, and Tucuvi returns structured results that flow back into the EHR. This batch approach automates data exchange with minimal changes to the core EHR system.
Many health systems favor this approach as a stepping stone, as it can be deployed in under a month. It’s secure, as data transfers occur over encrypted channels (often via a VPN tunnel in addition to sFTP), and it is also relatively fast to implement – often in the order of a few days once data formats are agreed.
Phase 2 is the full integration where Tucuvi becomes a seamless part of the clinical IT ecosystem. In this phase, we utilize real-time APIs and modern healthcare interoperability standards (like FHIR) to integrate directly with the EHR and other systems. Tucuvi’s platform exposes a secure API with FHIR endpoints, allowing bi-directional exchange of patient data, clinical documents, and triggers in real time. Concretely, Phase 2 enables capabilities such as:
Achieving Phase 2 integration does require close collaboration with the healthcare system’s IT department and possibly the EHR vendor. We leverage FHIR for standardized data exchange and OAuth2.0 for secure authentication (the backbone of SMART on FHIR apps). Many major EHRs (Epic, Cerner, etc.) support these out-of-the-box, making our job easier. Many major EHRs (Epic, Cerner, etc.) support these standards out-of-the-box, simplifying deployment. Additionally, recognizing that healthcare organizations increasingly rely on enterprise-grade identity providers, we’ve designed our platform to seamlessly integrate with Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions like Azure Active Directory and Okta, ensuring flexible and secure authentication aligned with modern IT infrastructure requirements.
In other cases, Tucuvi integrates via proprietary APIs or HL7v2 interfaces if needed – we are flexible, as demonstrated by our support for both modern and legacy standards. Our engineering team works hand-in-hand with hospital IT to map data fields, set up API endpoints, and ensure compliance with all security protocols. Once implemented, the lines between the EHR and Tucuvi blur: end-users might not even realize when they’re using Tucuvi’s functionality within their familiar EHR interface. The result is zero workflow switching and fully automated syncing of information.
Driving Toward Phase 2: We recognize that not every organization will reach full API integration quickly, but Phase 2 is the ultimate goal for maximum value. Tucuvi’s mission is to make this as smooth as possible. We often start with Phase 0 or 1, demonstrate outcomes and reliability, and use that success to justify the IT effort for Phase 2. This staged approach has enabled Tucuvi to integrate with over 20 healthcare systems across multiple regions to date. Each integration teaches us and improves our playbook for the next. We have interfaced with everything from cutting-edge cloud EHRs to older on-premises systems, adapting to each environment’s quirks while upholding privacy and safety standards.
Healthcare IT is notorious for its complexity. Systems are often a patchwork of EHRs, scheduling systems, call center software, legacy databases, and more – all held together by interface engines or even manual processes. On top of that, data privacy regulations like HIPAA (in the US) and GDPR (in Europe) impose stringent requirements on how patient data is handled, especially when introducing a third-party AI solution.
At Tucuvi, we deeply understand these challenges and have built both our technology and our approach to integration to navigate them effectively.
Standards and Interoperability: One key to dealing with complexity is embracing healthcare interoperability standards. Tucuvi was designed from day one to speak HL7 and FHIR, the “languages” that EHRs understand. Whether it’s an HL7 v2 ADT message feed or a FHIR REST API call for patient data, we can send and receive information in the format the system expects. This reduces the need for custom one-off interfaces. We’ve seen, for example, a hospital with an older EHR that couldn’t do real-time APIs neither support modern standards like FHIR nor successfully integrate Tucuvi by sending us SOAP messages via their middleware engine. Conversely, a cutting-edge health system using a modern FHIR-based data warehouse was able to plug Tucuvi in via FHIR resources with minimal fuss.
Security and Compliance: Trust is paramount when dealing with patient calls and data. Tucuvi operates under robust security protocols and is compliant with healthcare regulations to ease the mind of any CIO or compliance officer. Our platform is ISO 27001 certified and fully GDPR and HIPAA compliant.
In practical terms, this means data is always encrypted in transit and at rest, access to information is logged and audit-trailed, and we have strict controls on data residency and access. We often undergo detailed security reviews by hospital IT teams; coming out of those, we hear feedback that Tucuvi “checks all the boxes” for a secure medical-grade solution. Additionally, Tucuvi is certified as a medical device in Europe (CE Mark), which speaks to the rigor of our development and quality processes. This is not just an AI platform, but a clinically validated AI-powered tool. Such credentials give innovation executives and IT departments confidence that integrating Tucuvi won’t expose them to risk – it’s a battle-tested, enterprise-grade platform.
Hybrid Infrastructure: Another complexity is the variety of infrastructure setups in healthcare. Some customers use cloud-based EHRs, others have on-premises servers behind heavy firewalls, and many have VPN requirements for any data exchange. Tucuvi offers flexible deployment and integration models to accommodate these. Our cloud can securely connect via VPN tunnels to a hospital network for Phase 1 file transfers or API calls. We also ensure high availability and fail-safes – for example, if an EHR interface is down, Tucuvi can queue data and retry later, so nothing is lost.
Understanding that healthcare IT downtime can be life-critical, our integration approach always includes robust error handling and monitoring. This approach allows us to be prepared for events such as failures in overnight patient file imports, allowing us to notify the right people immediately ensuring no-downtime at all.
Change Management and Workflow Alignment: Technology aside, a major complexity is aligning with clinical workflows and getting user buy-in. We’ve learned that integration isn’t just a technical activity; it’s about fitting into how people work. In Phase 0, for instance, we might deliver output as a PDF report because that’s what nurses are used to reviewing each morning. As we integrate further, we ensure that the notes we write into the EHR are placed in the correct section (e.g. under “Telephone encounters” or a custom flowsheet) so clinicians can easily find and act on Tucuvi’s information.
We also often integrate with alert channels – like sending a message to a specific EHR inbox or triggering a task – to make sure nothing falls through the cracks when Tucuvi surfaces an issue (e.g. a patient with worrying symptoms). By mirroring existing workflows and enhancing them, not forcing entirely new ones, we make the technology adoption smoother. Our goal is that clinicians see Tucuvi as a helping hand that’s already integrated into their daily routine – in other words, it just shows up in the right place at the right time with the info they need.
Real-world Experience: Over the past few years, Tucuvi has integrated with a wide range of healthcare providers – from large academic hospitals to small specialty clinics – each with its own IT idiosyncrasies. This experience is invaluable. We’ve encountered and overcome HL7 variant mismatches ( never trust “we follow HL7 exactly”), sFTP firewall issues, outdated VPN configurations, you name it.
Having “seen the movie before,” our integration team can proactively address potential hurdles. For example, in one integration, we encountered an issue when sending patient-preferred alias names using the standard FHIR Patient.name (HumanName) field with the optional nickname use type. According to FHIR guidelines, it's entirely valid to include an additional name entry with "use": "nickname" to store a patient's preferred alias. However, we discovered the hard way that one EHR silently rejected the entire Patient resource whenever it saw this optional nickname field, despite it being compliant with the FHIR spec.
To avoid similar problems in future integrations, we now carefully validate upfront which optional name-use codes each EHR implementation explicitly supports. In another case, we learned how to optimize call summary notes to fit character limits in certain legacy systems. These lessons learned translate to faster, smoother integrations for new customers. Healthcare innovation executives can take comfort that Tucuvi is not a newbie in the hospital IT scene – we understand the stakes and complexity, and we have a proven track record of navigating them.
While Tucuvi’s core focus is clinical calls, our platform also brings value to administrative workflows in healthcare. One area where AI-driven call automation shines is in inbound call handling and scheduling. Healthcare call centers are inundated with calls for appointment scheduling, reminders, and basic inquiries – in fact, across many health systems, scheduling requests are the number one driver of inbound call volume. Tucuvi integrates into these workflows to automate and streamline administrative calls, much like how it handles clinical conversations.
Imagine a patient calls the clinic’s number to schedule a follow-up appointment. Instead of waiting on hold for a scheduler, LOLA can answer right away.
Via natural language understanding, it can identify that the caller wants to book an appointment, gather necessary information (patient identity, preferred times, reason for visit), and then interface with the scheduling system to find an open slot that fits. This is only possible if the AI is integrated with the clinic’s scheduling software or EHR module and also gathers enough patient info to correctly authenticate patients. The end result is an automated scheduling workflow: patients talk to a LOLA on the phone, and appointments get booked or modified instantly in the system, with confirmations sent out via SMS or client’s preferent channels.
In practice, when a patient says “I’d like to see Dr. Fernandez next week,” LOLA query the EHR’s calendar and respond with available times, booking the one the patient selects. Best practices such as: allowing patients to filter by doctor or location, presenting open time slots, and auto-syncing with the EHR so that the schedule is updated in real time and no double-booking occurs.
Beyond scheduling, inbound call automation by Tucuvi can cover routine administrative queries: prescription refill requests, clinic hours and directions (“Where do I park?”), insurance and billing questions, and more. These often follow scripts or lookup tasks that LOLA can handle by integrating with the relevant databases. For instance, if a patient calls to confirm the date and time of their next appointment, Tucuvi’s integration with the EHR could retrieve that information and answer immediately.
By fielding such calls, Tucuvi frees up front-desk staff to handle more complex or urgent patient needs. It’s the same value proposition as our clinical calls, applied to the administrative side: do more with the same staff.
To integrate into administrative workflows effectively, Tucuvi ensures that we respect the existing business rules of the organization. For scheduling, that means honoring things like appointment types, durations, provider availability, and any intake protocols (e.g. certain visits require pre-authorizations or lab orders beforehand). Our integration can incorporate these rules, either by pulling configuration from the EHR or by custom logic agreed upon with the client. We often start with narrower use cases – for example, automating scheduling for only a specific department or for simple follow-up appointments – and then expand. This incremental approach echoes the phased strategy we use on the clinical side.
From a technology standpoint, administrative integration might involve connecting to not just the EHR but possibly call center telephony systems (so that calls can be transferred from LOLA to human agents) or CRM systems. Tucuvi’s flexible API-centric architecture makes these integrations possible. With some clientes, we receive a webhook from the phone system when a call comes in, trigger LOLA to answer, and then use the EHR API in the background to handle the scheduling negotiation. All of this happens in seconds and is invisible to the end-user, who just perceives that they called and got what they needed quickly.
Tucuvi aims to be an extension of the health system’s team. When integrated seamlessly, LOLA becomes an always-available front-line worker that handles every phone call and coordinates with the rest of IT systems as any staff member would – recording notes, updating schedules, and escalating to human colleagues when needed. By doing so, we not only save time but also create a consistent patient experience. Patients get their needs addressed faster (which improves satisfaction), and every interaction – whether with LOLA or a team member – ends up documented in the same unified system.
For healthcare IT and innovation executives, the prospect of adding a new AI platform can be daunting – concerns about integration, security, and disruption to workflows are natural. Tucuvi addresses these head-on with a proven phased integration approach and a deep understanding of healthcare IT complexities. We’ve built our solution to be integration-friendly, adhering to standards like HL7/FHIR and ensuring enterprise-grade security and compliance at every step. Whether starting in standalone mode or moving toward a fully embedded AI platform within the EHR, we meet organizations where they are and steadily advance the integration as trust and value accumulate.
Tucuvi’s own deployments – across dozens of hospitals and clinics – have shown we can navigate the rough waters of healthcare IT and emerge with a solution that clinicians love and IT endorses. Every hour a nurse doesn’t spend on the phone doing routine calls, and every appointment booked automatically by LOLA, is time given back to patient care.
Inspiring confidence is about more than just technology – it’s about partnership. Tucuvi treats integration projects as collaborative efforts with the client’s IT and clinical teams. We bring our expertise to the table and listen closely to the needs and constraints of each environment. The result is a tailored integration that feels native to the organization. For innovation executives championing Tucuvi, we provide the reassurance that this solution will fit in, not stick out. In fact, after a successful Phase 2 integration, one might hardly distinguish Tucuvi’s work from the EHR’s native functionality – except for the notable improvements in efficiency and patient outreach metrics.
Healthcare is evolving, and AI-powered care is becoming a key driver of operational excellence. By integrating Tucuvi’s voice AI platform smoothly into healthcare systems, they unlock its full potential: reaching more patients with personalized care, reducing burdens on clinicians, and capturing rich data to inform care decisions – all without reinventing the IT wheel. Our phased approach, technical robustness, and real-world savvy ensure that Tucuvi isn’t just an innovative idea, but a practical, value-driving extension of your health IT ecosystem. We’re ready to integrate and deliver—step by step—until AI-powered care becomes a seamless, yet essential, part of your organization’s workflow.
That is the vision we invite healthcare IT leaders to share – and we’re excited to make it a reality together.
Whether you want to scale your capacity of care, automate repetitive tasks, improve care team efficiency, or reduce relapses through early interventions, we have a solution for you.
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