Industry · Healthcare

AI MVPs for healthcare. Built around HIPAA, not bolted onto it.

Downshift ships production-grade AI products for telehealth, patient engagement, clinic operations, and care coordination, with HIPAA, BAA, and audit logging baked into the architecture from day one.

Section 01

The healthcare engineering wall

Healthcare founders move fast on the clinical side and stall on the engineering side. Auth that does not understand SSO from a hospital identity provider. Storage that has not been BAA'd with the cloud vendor. AI features that send PHI to a third-party API without a signed agreement. The product looks fine in a demo and dies the moment a covered entity asks for documentation.

Generic dev shops treat HIPAA like an afterthought. They build the product, then bolt on a checklist before launch. The right approach is the inverse: design the data model, the auth, the logging, and the AI surface around HIPAA from the first commit. Anything else is rework waiting to be billed.

Section 02

What we build for healthcare founders

Specific product types Downshift has shipped or is set up to ship in healthcare.

Telehealth and virtual care

Video visits, asynchronous messaging, intake flows, and patient apps. Built on infrastructure that signs BAAs and supports audit logs by default.

Patient engagement apps

Mobile and web experiences for adherence, education, post-visit follow-up, and chronic care. Multi-channel messaging without putting PHI on the wrong wire.

Clinic operations and ops AI

Front-desk workflows, scheduling, eligibility checks, prior auth, and AI-assisted documentation. Reduce the admin tax that drives clinician burnout.

Care coordination

Multi-stakeholder portals (patient, provider, payer, family) with role-based access, audit trails, and event-driven workflows that survive real care timelines.

Provider-facing AI tooling

Note generation, chart summarization, decision support. PHI never leaves the BAA perimeter; outputs reviewed by humans before they hit the chart.

Health data integrations

FHIR, HL7, SMART on FHIR, EHR partner integrations. The plumbing that turns a startup pilot into something a health system can actually deploy.

Section 03

What healthcare engineering means at Downshift

Architectural decisions, not checklists. Each item changes how the product is built from the first week.

BAA-signed cloud, storage, and AI providers (we use the agreement, we do not just claim coverage)
PHI segregation in the data model and the API boundary; least-privilege access by default
Audit logging on every read and write of PHI from day one
Encryption in transit and at rest, key management, access reviews
AI surfaces that route PHI only through BAA-covered models and providers
SSO and MFA support for hospital identity providers
Documentation packets ready for procurement, security questionnaires, and pen tests

Section 04

Related Downshift work

RepairSnap demonstrates the same approach in a different vertical

AI front desk for auto body shops. Same pattern Downshift applies in healthcare: domain-specific intake, AI scoring, instant action, and infrastructure built around the regulated workflow.

Read the case study

Healthcare questions

Are Downshift's healthcare builds HIPAA-compliant?

Yes. HIPAA is treated as an architectural constraint, not a checklist. BAAs are signed with cloud, storage, and AI providers before code is written. Audit logs and PHI segregation are designed into the data model. Documentation is delivered alongside the product so the founder can pass procurement and security reviews.

How fast can a healthcare MVP ship?

Most healthcare MVPs land in the 4 to 6 week Venture Build range at $50,000 because the regulatory surface adds scope. The MVP at $30,000 fits simpler patient-facing apps and tools that do not touch PHI. Either way, the timeline is in weeks, not quarters. /pricing/ has the full breakdown.

Can you integrate with our EHR?

Yes. FHIR and SMART on FHIR are standard. Direct EHR integrations (Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks) depend on the partner program timeline of the EHR vendor; Downshift will architect the integration layer so the product works without an EHR connection on day one and gains it cleanly when the partnership lands.

What about AI in healthcare?

AI features are routed only through BAA-covered providers. Outputs are framed as decision support, never autonomous decisions. The founder retains the ability to add a clinician-in-the-loop review step at any inference point. Privacy and provenance are not afterthoughts.

Build your healthcare MVP

Read the engagement options, then book a strategy call. The Public Build path is selective and free of cash cost for founders willing to work in the open.