Allscripts is a medical appointment app that manages patient records. It introduced a collaborative script with Lyft that will automate a request for a ride to the appointment. The patient will be asked if they want a ride, if the answer is yes, then the appointment calendar will schedule a Lyft ride for the patient.
Lyft started its concierge services around two years ago by setting up a connection with hospitals and doctors offices, where the hospital or office would order a Lyft ride for the patient. Now, Lyft will enable Allscripts to insert code into their patient records management system and totally automate the ordering process.
According to David Baga, Lyft's chief business officer, "It's very much the next extension of our entrance into health care. We very much believe it's going to take a collaborative effort, and we think that this kind of technology integration is going to be a critical path for being successful in terms of breaking down those barriers for access to transportation for the patient community."
There are around 3.6 million missed medical appointments a year, so this new venture will radically reduce the waste. Allscripts CEO, Paul Black stated that "Not having someone show up is costly for the physician and costly for patients because care is not delivered. It's somewhat of literally the last mile, or the last lock of health care, getting the patient involved and making it easier for patients to get to appointments."
Basically, this is a rideshare dream come true, where rides are automatically set by a calendar, the real next step for this integration would be to partner with Microsoft and Google and have Lyft as an option in all calendar appointments, where an automatic request for a ride would be scheduled by the calendar. As far as customers are concerned the next obvious step would be to continue this into the autonomous vehicle future, and transportation would be totally cyber.
Uber announced it would be launching its own initiative soon.