The first direction was an AI co-pilot for Community Health Workers — another surface in an already fragmented workflow. At validation stage the risk was familiar: launch, low adoption, blame change management, never surface that the wedge was wrong.
Field contact with CHWs, ACPs, and PCPs ran before significant build — not to defend the concept, but to locate where time, trust, and context were actually lost.
Outcomes.
Direction changed pre-build
Co-pilot abandoned; Lorena scoped upstream — voice outreach and structured handoffs before human follow-up.
Burden removal wedge
Workflow-first voice + RAG tied to real shifts — not a demo layer over chat.
Reusable infrastructure
Patterns carried across healthcare incubations at Red Cell.
What the full case covers
- Field research process and findings that changed the roadmap
- Interaction and voice architecture for Lorena
- Human-in-the-loop escalation and accountability model
- Technical architecture and incubation reuse