Pivoting Toward Impact — Turning NurseAI into a Caregiver Assistant
by: Guntas Dhanjal, CEO, BAG Healthcare.
Every startup story has a pivot point. For me, it came after realizing that improving the healthcare system doesn’t always start inside it. Sometimes, you have to build around it first. After months of developing Nurse Onboarding, I pivoted the idea toward something more accessible, actionable, and human-centered NurseAI CareGiver edition.
In this blog, we’ll share the journey of pivoting an existing idea upon understanding of the market dynamics and our learnings from B2B sales.
Why We Pivoted?
The initial B2B focus of NurseAI was helping hospitals onboard nurses and was logical but slow. The lessons we learned from selling into the B2B space realigned our though process to focus on a B2C space and in our case Nurses. I wanted to make something that could create value right now, for both caregivers and patients.
So, I asked a simple question:
“What if we built something nurses and caregivers could use on their own, not just through their employer?”
That question reframed everything.
The Pivot: From Onboarding to Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
I was studying public health and health equity frameworks and came across Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), which include factors like housing, transportation, food access, and safety. And around the same time I was study Environmental factors in AP Environmental Science. So I connected the two.
It struck me that while nurses see these challenges daily, they rarely have tools to identify and act on them. Most electronic health systems don’t screen for non-clinical needs at all.
That insight became the foundation of new version of NurseAI – a digital assistant that helps caregivers identify patients’ social needs and connect them to local resources.
Building the First Version
At first I came up with lofty goals and had planned tons of features. Then I scaled back expectations and focused on what the most important pain-point for care-giver The first release of NurseAI focuses on two core features:
Drug Reference Guide – Fast, evidence-based medication lookups using FDA Open Data and RxNorm APIs.
SDOH Screening & Local Resource Finder – A short, structured questionnaire (based on the CMS Accountable Health Communities format) that links users to nearby support services via findhelp.org.
What started as an onboarding platform for nurses evolved into a tool for advocacy and preventive health.
NurseAI – A CareGivers assistant
This pivot wasn’t just technical and it was more research oriented and connecting the docts. I realized that nurses don’t need another HR app. They need digital tools that they can use today and assist the Patients and their family with needs.
By focusing on SDOH, NurseAI became part of a much larger conversation about how healthcare can evolve from treating illness to promoting wellness.
The next phase will expand NurseAI’s role as a connected ecosystem—eventually integrating with Dr. Health Agent, allowing nurses to securely share screening results for coordinated follow-up care.
