Glossary
Healthcare technology terms, in plain English.
The vocabulary of healthcare AI, automation, and revenue operations, defined the way we use it in real deployments.
- Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE)
- An engineer embedded with the customer instead of sitting behind a product team. FDEs learn how each organization actually runs, set the product up against those real workflows, handle the integrations, carry go-lives through to adoption, and bring what they saw in the field back to the roadmap. Palantir made the role famous, and most serious enterprise AI companies now deploy this way. Forward-Deployed Engineers →
- Fractional CTO
- Part-time senior technology leadership, usually retained monthly rather than hired full-time. The role carries the same responsibilities a staff CTO would: deciding what gets built or bought, vetting vendors, shaping AI strategy, and keeping implementations honest, at a fraction of the fixed cost. Fractional CTO services →
- Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)
- Everything between delivering care and getting paid for it. The cycle runs from verifying coverage through charge capture, coding, and claim submission to working denials, chasing receivables, and billing patients. Some organizations keep it in-house; many outsource it to specialized billing companies. Solutions for RCM teams →
- Denial Management
- The workflow of handling insurance claims that payers refuse to pay: categorizing denials by payer and reason code, prioritizing them by dollar value and appeal deadline, working appeals, and analyzing root causes so the upstream errors in eligibility, coding, and documentation stop producing the same denials. RCM workflows we improve →
- AI Phone Agent
- Conversational AI that picks up and places calls. In a practice it absorbs the predictable call volume: booking and confirming visits, sending reminders, fielding intake and common billing questions, and catching calls after hours. Anything sensitive or unusual is handed to a person along with the context of the conversation. AI & Automation →
- Eligibility Verification
- Confirming a patient's insurance coverage and benefits before care is delivered. Missed or incomplete verification is one of the most common root causes of claim denials; automated, appointment-linked verification workflows close that gap. AI & Automation →
- Prior Authorization
- A payer requirement that certain services, procedures, or medications be approved before they are delivered. Prior authorization is among the most manual, time-consuming workflows in healthcare administration, which makes status tracking, documentation assembly, and follow-up strong candidates for automation.
- EHR (Electronic Health Record)
- The system of record for clinical data: patient charts, encounters, orders, results, and documentation. The EHR sits at the center of most practice workflows, so what an EHR can integrate with usually determines what an operational workflow can automate.
- Practice Management (PM) System
- The administrative counterpart to the EHR: scheduling, registration, insurance information, billing, and claims. Many operational bottlenecks live in the gap between the PM system and everything around it: phones, forms, billing tools, and reporting.
- EHR Integration
- Connecting the EHR to other systems (practice management, billing, phones, forms, dashboards) so information moves automatically instead of through manual re-entry. Integrations range from modern API connections to interface engines, exports, and workflow-level bridges when no API exists. What we deploy →
- Patient Intake Automation
- Replacing clipboard-and-scanner intake with digital forms sent before the visit, automated reminders for incomplete forms, and validated data flowing into the practice's systems. Cuts front-desk workload, no-show-adjacent delays, and downstream billing errors from bad demographic data. Solutions for providers →
- AR Follow-Up (Accounts Receivable)
- Working unpaid claims after submission: tracking aging, contacting payers, resolving holds, and escalating what is stuck. Structured AR follow-up replaces habit-driven work with prioritized worklists based on aging buckets, payer behavior, and dollar value. RCM workflows we improve →
- Workflow Automation
- Using software to execute the repetitive steps of an operational process, like routing tasks, sending reminders, flagging exceptions, and updating systems, so staff handle judgment calls instead of mechanics. In healthcare, automation is designed around escalation paths and human review points rather than full autonomy. AI & Automation →
- HIPAA-Aware Workflow Design
- Designing operational workflows so protected health information (PHI) is handled within HIPAA constraints: vendors evaluated for BAAs and data practices, data access minimized to what the workflow needs, audit trails preserved, and humans kept in the loop on sensitive decisions. Compliance counsel still owns legal review; workflow design makes their job possible.
- Solution Engineering
- Pre-sales technical work that determines whether and how a product fits a specific customer: discovery of the customer's systems and workflows, integration feasibility assessment, scoping, and technical demos. Strong solution engineering prevents the failed pilots that come from selling into unexamined environments. Forward-Deployed Engineers →
- Deployment Playbook
- The written, repeatable version of how a company implements its product: discovery templates, integration steps, launch runbooks, training material, and the metrics that define a healthy rollout. A playbook is what lets implementation scale beyond the founders being on every call. Solutions for startups →
- Managed AI Operations
- Ongoing operation of deployed AI workflows: monitoring performance, refining prompts and scripts, handling model and vendor changes, reviewing escalations, and reporting outcomes. AI workflows degrade without operation. Managed AI ops is the maintenance layer that keeps them reliable. How we work →
- Digital Front Door
- The set of digital entry points patients use to reach a practice: online scheduling, appointment requests, digital intake, two-way messaging, and self-service. A working digital front door captures demand that phone lines miss and reduces inbound call volume. Solutions for providers →