Jon Roosevelt

Since I began programming in 2007, I've always wanted to create something that makes a lasting difference in the lives of billions. For me, healthcare technology is the ideal field where my impact can be exponentially greater.

Remember when you were cooking dinner, chopping away, and then - suddenly - the knife slipped? So does my wife, a talented violinist who almost lost her index finger in a kitchen accident. It's one of those incidents we see coming only in slow-motion, right before everything speeds up.

You can probably imagine the panic as we dashed to the local urgent care at around 7 p.m. To our surprise, there were no other patients there. You'd think we'd be seen immediately, but instead, the receptionist said the same old line, "You'll be called when the provider is ready." As I held my anxious wife within my arm's fold, I whispered comforting words into her ear, a meager attempt to stifle her fear of never returning to the stage.

However, the ticking hands of the clock engrossed us in a torturous waiting game. Would she ever play the violin again? Could we have gone to the emergency room? Probably, but who knows how much longer that would've taken? So we sat for an agonizing 45 minutes. Something about that didn't feel right.

Finally, a bright spot amidst the chaos — the attending provider was exceptional, reassuring us that the fresh cut, finely sliced by a new, sharp knife, was perfectly stitched back. On the drive home, the idea for Arcs Health took root in me. Rather than allowing our personal story to fade, I wanted to use it as a catalyst for change.

Luckily for my wife, she recovered in a few short weeks. Before we knew it, she was back on stage. But the whole incident left us wrestling with a bunch of scary "what ifs": What if we hadn't been lucky enough to have the right provider? What if we'd waited 30 minutes longer? What if she was told her arrival was too late, affecting the optimal healing of her finger and potentially causing a long-term impact?

I envisioned a future where waiting times would be nonexistent in our clinics. I saw our providers spending more time with patients, free from the usual tedious 'busy-work' that has become the norm in our healthcare systems. Picture providers finally say goodbye to 'Pajama Time' notes, freeing themselves from the headaches of prior authorizations and eliminating the pressures to squeeze more patient appointments into the day.

Experience