Our Journey in AI and Healthcare — From the Summit Stage to What Comes Next
- Matthew Hellyar
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Introduction
Last week, Respocare had the honour of joining some of South Africa’s most forward-thinking leaders at the AI in Healthcare Summit 2025, hosted by ML Africa. It was more than a conference — it was a defining moment for the future of medicine.
Our Strategic Partner and Chief Development Officer, Matthew Hellyar, was invited as a keynote speaker to present on a topic that sits at the heart of our mission:Agentic AI in Clinical Workflows — Redefining Autonomy in Healthcare.
The summit brought together clinicians, innovators, policymakers, and technologists — all sharing one powerful vision: to build a healthcare system where intelligence works with clinicians, not around them. For the Respocare team, it was a privilege to represent South Africa’s growing leadership in clinical innovation and to showcase how Respocare Connect AI is helping shape that future.
From our first prototypes to our live demonstration, our message was clear: AI in healthcare isn’t about replacing clinicians — it’s about empowering them. It’s about restoring time, focus, and humanity to those who make medicine possible.
Our Presentation — Agentic AI in Clinical Workflows
At the summit, our keynote explored what many are now calling the next frontier of digital medicine — Agentic AI: intelligent systems that can remember, reason, and act within safe clinical boundaries.
We introduced the audience to the architecture behind Respocare Connect AI, our modular, agentic platform designed to work with clinicians — not around them.
Our presentation demonstrated how the system follows a simple but powerful loop:
Retrieve → Reason → Respond → Record
Each step mirrors the way a clinical team functions — retrieving verified data, reasoning through context, responding with structured accuracy, and recording it all under strict compliance and traceability.
From the backend orchestration in n8n to secure data storage in Supabase, attendees were able to see firsthand how this model is transforming documentation speed, accuracy, and trust.
The feedback was clear: this is what practical, ethical AI looks like in real healthcare settings.
📥 Download our full presentation: Download Respocare Connect AI Keynote Presentation
What We Learned from South Africa’s Leaders
The AI in Healthcare Summit 2025 brought together a rare mix of voices — clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and founders — each sharing practical insights into how AI can strengthen healthcare rather than disrupt it.
Three themes resonated deeply with us:
Trust is the foundation.South Africa’s healthcare leaders emphasized that innovation only succeeds when it earns the confidence of both clinicians and patients. Every new technology must be transparent, auditable, and human-centred.
Ethical design comes first.From hospital executives to health-tech developers, the message was clear: AI in healthcare must be bias-aware, regulated, and built with patient privacy at its core. Compliance with POPIA and alignment with global frameworks such as the FDA and NHS AIaMD guidelines will define credibility.
Collaboration is our competitive edge.The summit showcased how partnerships between engineers and clinicians are shaping sustainable digital-health ecosystems in South Africa. This reinforced Respocare’s long-held belief that technology should amplify, not replace, the expertise of healthcare professionals.
For Respocare, these conversations validated our mission — to keep our focus on what matters most: value, service, and patient outcomes above all else.
Where We Are Now — The Next Chapter for Respocare Connect AI
Since our presentation at the AI in Healthcare Summit 2025, our focus has evolved from design to deployment.
We’ve successfully completed the backend development of Respocare Connect AI — the core agentic engine that powers our intelligent workflows. Our current phase is focused on testing and clinical validation, ensuring every workflow performs with accuracy, safety, and transparency.
We are now preparing to partner with a private clinic to conduct real-world implementation trials and explore potential opportunities to assist the public healthcare sector in 2026. These collaborations will help us refine usability, performance, and clinical value across diverse care environments.
On the development front, our frontend interface — the clinician-facing dashboard and chat-based interaction system — is now in its final build stage. We expect to officially launch our full platform in early 2026.
Our internal testing continues to show strong performance:
85–90% reduction in documentation time
100% accuracy in structured intake summaries
Zero hallucinated data across validated test cases
As we move forward, our goal remains unchanged:
To deliver Agentic Intelligence that enhances human judgment, strengthens care quality, and restores time to clinicians.
Stay Connected — The Agentic Report & Respocare Insights
The Summit was only the beginning. What comes next will define how intelligence and care truly converge.
If you’ve followed our journey so far, you know that Respocare isn’t just building technology — we’re building trust, transparency, and a new way for clinicians to work alongside AI. And we’d love for you to be part of it.
Join the Waitlist — Respocare Connect AIBe among the first to experience our Agentic clinical assistant when it launches in early 2026.Get exclusive updates, early-access invitations, and behind-the-scenes insights as we prepare to roll out the platform.👉 Join the Waitlist Now
📬 Stay Informed with Our Newsletters
The Agentic Report — a weekly update that tracks our progress, pilot programs, and the evolving architecture behind Respocare Connect AI.
Respocare Insights — our flagship publication exploring breakthroughs in AI, ethics, and clinical innovation, keeping medical professionals ahead without the noise.
Together, these newsletters form the pulse of everything we’re building — real stories, real data, real change.
We’re looking for collaborators, healthcare leaders, and forward-thinking clinics to help shape this next phase.If you believe in a world where AI serves people — not the other way around — we’d love to meet you.
Let’s build the future of intelligent care, together.
Closing Reflection — A Vision for What Comes Next
At Respocare, our journey in AI and healthcare has always been guided by one belief: Technology should never replace care — it should restore it.
From our earliest ideas to presenting on the Summit stage, that vision has remained constant. Agentic AI is not just a milestone in innovation — it’s a commitment to the people behind medicine: the clinicians, nurses, researchers, and patients whose lives depend on trust, clarity, and compassion.
As we move into the next chapter — with our backend complete, our frontend nearing launch, and new partnerships on the horizon — we remain anchored by the same principles that built our foundation: value, service, and patient outcomes above all else.
The age of intelligent collaboration in healthcare has begun — and it’s being built right here in South Africa. We are honored to play our part.
Thank you to ML Africa, our partners, collaborators, and the growing Respocare community for walking this journey with us. The best chapters are still ahead.
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