Hey everyone 👋

We’re Max Shand and Campbell Mercer, co-founders of Avoca Systems.

TL;DR: Avoca automates patient scheduling and communications for radiology groups. Our radiology-specific AI handles calls, online scheduling, faxes and e-referrals, guiding patients from referral and booking through to results and follow-up. We’re already live across more than 250 clinics, including networks operating 150+ locations.

https://youtu.be/ZU3Ebvs5Mk0

What it does

Radiology scheduling is unusually complex. A valid appointment can depend on the modality, body region, contrast requirements, patient history, preparation instructions, equipment availability, staff qualifications and referring-provider details.

These rules are fragmented across legacy systems, spreadsheets and the tacit knowledge of experienced receptionists. Generic voice and scheduling tools struggle to bring them together.

Avoca integrates with a radiology network’s existing systems and turns its workflows and operational knowledge into one automation layer:

• AI calls: Answers inbound calls and runs outbound campaigns for bookings, rescheduling, cancellations, preparation questions and general enquiries.
• Online scheduling: Lets patients upload their referral, complete the necessary clinical and safety questions, and find an appropriate appointment in real time.
• Fax and e-referral automation: Ingests and interprets referrals, identifies missing information and contacts patients to complete their booking.
• Operational intelligence: Encodes each network’s booking rules, rosters, staff capabilities, preferences and tacit knowledge so Avoca can safely fill available scanner capacity.
• Patient communications: Guides patients through preparation, intake, reminders, results and follow-up using voice, text and email.

Why this matters

Up to 30% of calls into radiology centres go unanswered as patients wait on hold. Referrals arrive through phones, websites, faxes and electronic systems, leaving staff to manually interpret documents, contact patients and coordinate appointments across multiple systems.

At the same time, radiology providers face staff shortages, rising operating costs and reimbursement pressure. Missed calls and unprocessed referrals mean patients wait longer while valuable scanner capacity goes unfilled.

Avoca helps networks capture more patient demand, reduce administrative work and complete more scans using their existing clinics, equipment and clinical systems.

Traction

• Partnered with 250+ clinics, including several of Australia’s largest radiology networks
• Reduced call abandonment from approximately 30% to 2%
• Patient satisfaction averaging 4.6/5
• More than 80% booking conversion for eligible patient calls in major deployments
• Integrated with leading radiology and healthcare systems, including Visage, Karisma, Comrad, Epic, Oracle Health and eClinicalWorks
• Now expanding into the United States

Why we’re building this

I (Max) was the first employee at Afterpay and later founded and sold Serenade. Cam was previously a principal engineer at Honey Insurance and Macquarie. Across those experiences, we saw how much better an industry can operate when complex workflows are turned into simple, intuitive products.

Healthcare is a chaotic mess of work that falls between systems: calls that go unanswered, referrals that sit in fax queues and operational knowledge that exists only in the heads of experienced staff.

We started with radiology because the scheduling complexity is exceptionally high and the consolidation of radiology clinics into large groups allowed us to focus our GTM efforts on just a few influential stakeholders who acutely feel the pain we’re solving for.

Our big ask

• Any introduction to a radiology network or health system chief executive (CEO, CIO, COO, CDO, CRO - even the new brand of CAIO - Chief AI Officer) would be hugely appreciated. We’re new to the US and eager to meet leaders tackling the patient access and scheduling challenges we’re solving.

Finally, if you operate a radiology network - or know someone who does - we’d love to hear from you. Please reply here or reach us at hello@avocasystems.com.