Oncologists often share that people knowledgeable about their cancer type and treatment possibilities have the potential to become savvy survivors. Pancreatic cancer communities such as Let’s Win for Pancreatic Cancer, which crowd-sources clinical trial possibilities, have demonstrated that a more engaged patient has better access to clinical trials and treatment innovation. Why shouldn’t all people diagnosed with cancer have a 24/7 mentor and coach to navigate the uphill care path?  That’s precisely what Belong-Life has created – an ever-smart mentor and care partner called Dave AI.

The LLM Cancer Mentor App is a revolutionary tool for cancer patients, caregivers, and physicians. It’s like having a WAZE for navigating the complex cancer diagnostic and care journey.  No longer do patients have to wait for their next appointment to get answers to their questions. They now have a high-level concierge coach available 24/7, ushering in what innovation theorist John Nosta calls ‘The Age of Cognition ‘.

“Perhaps one of the most complex things about oncology is complexity itself. From clinical knowledge and understanding to articulating difficult concepts with patients. Part of what large language models (LLMs) offer is the ability to provide a cognitive assistant that serves up information that is organized and important, and delivers it away that is more relevant and understandable,” said Nosta to Medika Life. “This is perhaps most important with patients who often find the complexity of oncology to be one of the worst toxicities of both therapy and disease,” he added.

ChatGPT Controversial Perhaps, But Patient Preferred

Last year, a controversial JAMA study suggested patients often preferred ChatGPT tools to physician conversation.  A chatbot generated quality and empathetic responses to patient questions online in this cross-sectional study.  While physicians doubted the study’s design, it was evident from data and public conversation that technology available in real-time answering patients’ pressing clinical and emotional needs was sought and welcomed. Even Eric Topol, MD, a long-time AI advocate reports that augmented information can potentially save lives.

Now, the large language model (LLM) called Dave AI was created by Belong.Life increases patient engagement and provides personalized support.  Medika Life spoke with one of the world’s foremost digital health leaders, who marshaled the potential of technology and tapped medical and drug development experts and patient feedback systems to develop AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs tools to support cancer patient advocacy and innovation.  Eliran Malki, the co-founder and CEO of Belong.Life, is a proven entrepreneur and business leader who has founded, financed, and led several successful companies, including More IT Resources Ltd., acquired by Dell-EMC, Veracity Ltd., acquired by EMET, and others.  Together with Co-Founder Irad Deutsch, they launched Belong.Life almost a decade ago. Today, the company serves patients around the globe.

Malki’s blueprint for success isn’t a closely guarded secret – he consistently creates tech platforms that provide easily accessible, practical, and consistent value to users.  Belong.Life is a multilingual HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO-compliant community combining science, service, and solutions to unite patients, payors, product innovators, policymakers, and provers. It demonstrates that the LLMs can provide patients with the support essential to their cancer care journey – augmented information on-demand.

[The  Dave Cancer Mentor app can be downloaded here.]

Dave AI Created to Improve the Patient Journey

Eliran Malki, Co-Founder and CEO, Belong.Life: Dave AI was among the reasons we launched Belong Life – to improve people’s care journey and, ultimately, possibilities for outcome success. We trained this unique LLM (large language model) on an extensive knowledge base of 80 million discussions between patients and physicians. Over eight years, it’s accumulated knowledge of numerous physicians with 100,000 patients discussing the Belong Life app. The training process involved anonymizing and aggregating data to ensure patient privacy and security.

Gil Bashe, Editor-in-Chief, Medika Life: Incredible, eight years and 80 million discussions. How did you distill millions of exchanges and infuse them into Dave AI’s mind? Could you explain the process?

How Does the Dave AI LLM Work?

Malki: We started about six to seven years ago. There are a lot of questions that sometimes people lack the confidence to ask their physicians. People too often have only 10 or a maximum of 20 minutes with their provider. Patients want to ask the top two to three pressing questions, but you don’t do that if you are shy or intimidated to raise a topic.  At the same time, physicians want nothing more than help. Dave AI is a bridge between patients and their physicians – it helps prepare and strengthen the person-to-person relationship.

Here is a video summary of how Dave AI works:

With Dave AI, you can ask about treatment options, potential therapy side effects, clinical trials, or even managing your symptoms – pain, sexual function, or personal care. You’ll receive a supportive, comprehensive answer that covers all aspects of your query. We want to give the best services to patients at all hours, day and night, to educate and empower. Dave AI enables us to support millions of patients and prepare them to use their time with physicians productively. Everyone can get maximum support immediately. It’s suitable for payors, good for providers, and, most importantly, for patients.  It’s a model that combines the best of medicine, patient-physician relationships, and technology.

Dave AI Access for Everyone was Important to Belong.Life

Bashe: I have a question about cost. I understand there’s a free app download on any platform at no cost to the patient.

Malki: Yes, free of charge. We created three service levels to ensure this LLM technology is accessible to all.  The new Dave AI Mentor app is a free zone with premium services. The Dave AI Mentor answers questions and works with patients as a navigator along their cancer journey. It will ask about your upcoming tests; it will help people keep a diet and exercise regimen on track. Depending on your journey, it will be a health case manager and a constant ally. Dave AI will call you and answer questions that you ask, and it will also ask you questions to help model engagement. It’s similar to a coach,

We’re doing many things with hospitals, physicians and insurers that now cost $14.99 monthly. If you are an insurer, you can offer a patient, Dave AI, as a mentor or a case manager who’s available 24/7 and provides support with education and information for $150 per year. It’s the same for hospitals.

Bashe: So, are there different levels of Dave AI services to provide for people with varied economic and information needs?

Malki: Correct. There is a free version, a Pro version, and a Power Plus version. Everyone gets a seven-day trial to use everything. Most users renew. We start billing in January. If people don’t want to pay for an entire year midpoint in the cycle, they can use the free version first.  Many patients prefer the yearly subscription at $120 to $179, which offers unlimited access and added services.

Bashe: I’m curious – do you white-label Dave AI for hospital systems? For example, would it be possible for centers of excellence such as Memorial Sloan Kettering or Hackensack Meridian to secure a branded version of Dave AI catering to their patient needs?

Malki: Yes.  This is central to our service and patient care efforts. We are a technology company.  But we are, first and foremost, a patient-care service platform.  We want people to use and access the best of technology to improve their health.

Bashe: I wanted some background about basic free Dave AI. Now, some people are economically hard-pressed at the same time. Though $149 per year is not a lot when your life may be on the line, you have ensured that there is access to all, regardless of economics. How do Dave AI, Dave AI Pro, and Dave AI Pro Plus differ?

Imagine an Interactive Cancer Expert Available 24/7

Belong.Life’s new oncology AI mentor, Dave, provides accurate, personalized and accessible information instantaneously for people navigating the cancer journey. Dave is available on Belong’s Beating Cancer Together app.

Malki: Some people post 2,000 questions – some read  more than 5,000 posts.  Access to Dave AI for all is essential.  At the same time, someone speaking with an expert resource for 2,000 posts and chats should become a subscriber to the service because it is an incredible investment for us to create, operate, and continuously perfect the system.

Bashe: How many questions can you ask from the free Dave AI before going from Dave AI Pro to Dave AI Plus?

Malki: The free version is limited to 10 questions; the user must wait a week afterward—10 for the first week and then five per week. Many patients value the service, realize its immediate benefits, and are willing to pay. Taking a photo of a clinical document – uploading diagnostic test results – and understanding the document while you are still in the MRI waiting room is an incredible benefit, rather than waiting before you see the physician to discuss the written report. It is of considerable value that Dave AI can read, analyze, and provide feedback almost immediately.   

Scheduling a meeting with a physician is time-consuming and emotionally consuming. You call to wait days or weeks – a day feels like a lifetime.  Sometimes, you need questions answered immediately, seek elaboration, and say, “Please explain again; I didn’t understand that.” So, Dave AI is crucial for patients’ care and mental well-being.

Bashe: With Dave AI Pro Plus, people can ask as many questions as possible?

Malki: Yes.  As many as you want, all the time, 24/7.

How Does Smart Tech Get Smarter?

Bashe: I wanted to get a sense of the evolution of Dave AI. So, I understand that Dave AI is very smart today. How does Dave AI maintain that high level of intelligence week after week?

Malki:  Great question. This is a unique and critical accuracy feature that we patented.  It’s known as the Arch Methodology. The Arch stands for Accuracy, Responsibility, Compliance, and Hallucination-free. AI must always answer accurately; if Dave AI doesn’t know the answer, he can’t invent it. He will say, “I cannot answer.” Telling the AI what not to answer is as important as telling them what and how to respond.

We have several LLM multiplexers. [AS1] This is also one of our patents. All information goes through feedback classification, sentiment analysis, an RLHF Engine (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback), and a machine learning approach combining human guidance to train the AI tool..

Every change also goes through several tests and the automated ARCH-validated protocols.

Speed Accelerated for Clinical Trial Inclusion

We have been offering a clinical trial recruitment service for patients for the past six years. The average time for matching a patient to a clinical trial before  September 2023 was 5.4 days from when the patient started speaking to us.. Once we launched and added another LLM called Tara to our clinical trials matching program, the median connect time was 9 minutes, and the average was 2 ½ hours. The patient also can upload their documents, and the system will do all the work.

Eliminating the Tension of Waiting for Answers

The BelongAI Dave – Cancer Mentor app provides 24/7 accurate, personalized, and proactive support and information for people navigating the cancer journey.

Bashe: If you have 15,000 patients, those are 15,000 people who don’t have to wait 5.4 days.  There is also the issue of reducing anxiety levels for someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer. How do they take control of a situation when their life is out of control? They collect information and act on it. If they’re lingering in the trial search environment for five days or three days, that increases their anxiety levels. If they search for only three hours, that reduces their anxiety level.

It’s a little bit like having an interview for a job, and you’re waiting 5-6 days to find out if you got the job, or if they call you back in 3 hours and you got the job, what’s your anxiety level while waiting to hear about the job? It’s off the charts. By day 5 ½, you’re wondering why you didn’t get it.

Unintended cruelty is baked into the clinical trial enrollment and care system, which keeps people hanging. Dave AI and Tara AI eliminate that factor.

Malki: It gives them hope. The patient asked for and got information relevant to the clinical trial, whereas people generally wait till a physician tells them.

Bashe: The reality is that Dave AI hones the process. The patient isn’t necessarily going to run off and enlist in a trial; they’ll say to their doctor, “Look, I’ve gotten three possible trials from this database that fit my profile; what do you think?” It’s not an exclusion of the doctor; it’s accelerating the doctor’s ability to look over information and reply. Technology is not a replacement for a doctor; you understand that democratizing decision-making accelerates your enterprise’s decision-making pace. Same with the doctor.

The doctor, who’s cognitively sharp and psychologically sturdy, now has a patient who is much more engaged with the system. It’s not that Dave AI is the only trusted source; it’s that Dave AI is accelerating the patient’s ability to engage their doctor. The doctor can speak to the patient for five minutes and say, “I looked over your stuff; I think these are three good choices; I would go with this one as the priority, and tell me when you’ve enrolled.” The doctor never loses control over the patient. Oncologists want patients who remain alive.

I have a key question I will make sure to grab: How does Dave AI today get smarter tomorrow? What’s the rate of ability to make Dave smarter?

Malki: There are several factors involved in being smart in AI.. If you want chats, you will need Open AI, Gemini , or something like that, as you see in a mixed style, or Falcon, which is among the best. There are top five in the world as generative AI, and we’re just using three of them, running them on our classifications and our data – there’s no one in the market with our data. No one has the same physician-patient discussion database.

What makes us much better is that we added data from Dave AI’s patient exchanges. We deploy these patient discussions, remarks, and feedback. Dave AI is continuously improving.

Layers and Levels to Ensure Accuracy

Malki: 

We took the platform of AIand built three levels of what we call autonomous AI. Level 1 is controlled;. This is the easiest step forward for pharma, the FDA, and regulations. Gen 2 – this information is 100% accurate because the first one is pre-defined and pre-scripted; I have the approved answers, and the physician sends the second one.

Level 2 is a generative AI agent for specific documents, only . That’s amazing for hospitals, especially for logistical or administrative questions. Information that can lower stress and free the professional team.

Level 3 is a fully automated conversation with AI.  This is a Highly scaleable and valuable solutions

Bashe:  We’ve entered the cognitive age. With large language models, you’re in conversation. It understands that there’s a conversational tone to every exchange. You can use the LLM for half an hour or 40 minutes until you feel you’ve exhausted your train of thought.

Malki: Every payor, every provider, and every patient needs access to these platforms  as triage services to lower stress – the burnout level for professionals and increase the value to patients.  To review for Medika readers, here are the three Dave AI service options:

Dave Pro:

• Proactive check-ins with users about previously discussed concerns, scheduled treatments, and more.
• Precise, comprehensive, and empathetic answers to cancer-related questions and challenges.
• Document analysis and explanations of clinical terminology in easy-to-understand language.
• Access a personalized, continuously updated library of information on treatment options, side effects, and emotional well-being.
• Medication management, appointment notifications, and reminders.

Dave Pro Plus offers Dave Pro features through Tara, Belong.Life AI-powered assistant that matches patients to clinical trials based on their unique medical situations and locations. Through ongoing searches, Tara identifies new treatments and clinical trials and shares easy-to-read monthly summaries to update patients on treatment possibilities.

Dave Community allows patients to interact with Dave in a public forum, enabling users to understand other patients’ challenges and interactions with Dave.  

So, what do doctors think about Dave AI?  

We spoke with Ilya Iofin, MD, the Chief of Orthopaedic Oncology Service at Mount Sinai Hospital.

“Thank you, Gil. I first started working with Belong in 2017 or 2018.  Dave AI gives accessibility because you have this additional resource where anyone can understand the answer. AI is trained and based on what physicians say. You can use medical lingo and confuse everybody or try to explain it in terms that a reasonably intelligent person can understand. I think AI will do the same thing if AI learns from physicians who can get their thoughts and information across in reasonable human speech.

“Specialized medicine, especially oncology, differs from any other field. I’m a physician. If I talk to a car mechanic, he needs to explain, in terms I understand, how a car and engine work. Or I’ll just be as confused as the guy who knows nothing about cars. That’s the benefit of this LLM for people confronting cancer.”

Welcome to the Age of Cognition

Dave AI and LLM enable patients to navigate the complexity of medical care – from diagnosis to treatment to being in dialogue with their care team – which are critical to outcomes.  Malki and his team of engineers, physicians, medical professionals, and patient allies are showing us that LLM is not space-age technology.  LLM enables people diagnosed with cancer to overcome one of the disease’s biggest challenges: learning a language they never thought or wanted to understand.

Patient Advisory

Medika Life has provided this material for your information. We note that this platform and information provided are not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your health care provider(s). We encourage readers to discuss any clinical decisions on treatment or care with a health care provider. The mention of any product, service, or therapy is not an endorsement by Medika Life.