HealthNavAI: An AI-Powered National Platform for Real-Time Healthcare Service Availability and Patient Routing

Abstract

Delays in accessing healthcare are not limited to overcrowded Emergency Departments (EDs)—patients frequently face prolonged waits for specialist consultations, diagnostic imaging, and elective surgeries. While some regions provide partial visibility into ED wait times, these systems are fragmented, inconsistent, and rarely extend to other critical services. This article proposes HealthNavAI, a regulation-backed, nationwide Healthcare Service Availability and Routing Platform that mandates real-time, standardized data sharing from all healthcare providers. The platform integrates ED queue status, specialist appointments, diagnostic imaging capacity, elective surgery schedules, and ambulance availability. An AI-based routing engine processes this data to predict service load, optimize patient allocation, and recommend optimal service locations based on predicted wait times, travel distance, clinical capability, and equity constraints. By leveraging interoperability standards and predictive analytics, HealthNavAI delivers actionable, real-time guidance to citizens, healthcare providers, and emergency services, enabling nationwide patient load balancing and reduced wait times across multiple services.