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CVS just created 100,000 digital patients to test on.
And it’s changing how we design healthcare experiences forever.
Here’s what’s happening:
CVS Health partnered with Simile to build “agentic twins”, AI simulations of real patients based on 2.9 million consented responses from over 400,000 people.
These aren’t generic personas. They’re detailed behavioral models that predict how specific patient groups will react to services, messages, and care pathways.
The numbers are staggering:
• 85-95% accuracy compared to real patient studies
• Testing completed in hours instead of weeks
• Over 200 behavioral scenarios already modeled
• Hard-to-reach populations like immunocompromised patients finally represented
But here’s what makes this revolutionary:
These digital twins don’t just tell you what patients will do. They explain WHY.
Why did someone skip their medication refill?
Why didn’t they schedule preventive care?
Why did they abandon the digital checkout?
CVS can now ask follow-up questions to simulated patients, uncovering insights that traditional surveys miss because of participant fatigue or recruitment challenges.
They’re using it to:
• Test new digital products before launch
• A/B test messaging with vulnerable populations
• Understand competitor perceptions
• Design services for patients who typically don’t participate in research
This isn’t replacing human judgment. CVS maintains strict governance for fairness and safety, using simulations to prioritize which ideas deserve real-world testing.
The Silver Stevie Award they just won for Customer Experience AI validates what many of us suspected:
The future of healthcare design isn’t just listening to patients.
It’s creating digital versions of them to test every possible scenario before a single real person is affected.
Think about the implications:
📊 Every FQHC could test outreach strategies for their exact patient mix
🏥 Hospitals could simulate emergency department flows before renovations
💊 Pharma could predict adherence patterns before drug launch
We’re entering an era where “patient-centered design” means testing on millions of simulated patients first.
The question isn’t whether this technology will spread.
It’s how fast healthcare organizations will adopt it, and whether smaller providers will have access to these powerful tools.
What excites me most? The potential to finally understand and serve populations that healthcare has historically struggled to reach.
♻️ Repost if healthcare needs to test on digital twins before real patients
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for daily, real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
