They Said Yes: A Case Study in How Coastal Health and Actual HealthCare Solutions Are Flipping the Switch on AI Radiology
- Dasha Tyshlek
- Aug 26
- 4 min read
Every breakthrough in healthcare shares a common moment: the first time someone dares to
use it.
Innovation in healthcare doesn’t happen in a vacuum. New technologies don’t become real until someone takes the leap to use it for the first time. Yet the process of adoption often feels
shrouded in mystery: Did the founders simply have the right connections? Was their timing to
market “just right”? Or were they just lucky?
When I first began conceptualizing a conference focused on healthcare innovation, Bill
Sowers—an advisor and long-time medical device executive—recommended that we include a
hook. His idea was simple but compelling: create a session that takes the audience behind the
curtain of the hardest part of innovation and commercialization. This is the moment when
someone says yes for the very first time.
At Disrupt Health, part of Jax Tech Fest 2025, we’re bringing that idea to life with a session called “They Said Yes.” The premise is simple but powerful: put the innovators who build the technology on stage with the clinicians who first trusted it in practice. Together, they’ll share the risks, lessons, and breakthroughs that happen when a first customer takes the leap.
This year, that story belongs to Actual HealthCare Solutions (AHS) and Coastal Health, the
largest outpatient provider in Northeast Florida.
From CDs to Cloud-Based Radiology
If you can believe it, most practices across the U.S. are still swapping radiology studies via CDs. Doctors sometimes even take smartphone photos of scans just to bring them into the operating room. Not only is this inefficient, it raises serious concerns about accuracy, compliance, and patient safety.
That reality is what drove Dr. Jamie Wisser—a board-certified plastic surgeon with fellowship
training in microsurgery and complex reconstruction—to found Actual Healthcare Solutions. In
his clinical work, Dr. Wisser saw firsthand how these bottlenecks slowed down care and created frustration for both patients and providers. Rather than accept these inefficiencies as
inevitable, he set out to build technology that would eliminate them. His dual perspective as a
surgeon and entrepreneur gave AHS a unique edge: solutions designed from within healthcare
itself.
AHS, through its ELEMREX platform, is tackling this problem head-on. Their technology
streamlines referrals, radiology workflows, and data access—replacing CDs, fax-based transfers, and other outdated processes with a secure, AI-enabled, web-based solution.
Flipping the Switch on AI in Healthcare
As JD Wilson put it:
“We’re at the same place Henry Flagler was when he first put electricity in hotel rooms. Guests were afraid to flip the switch. Today, in healthcare, we’re afraid to flip the switch on AI. But it’s time.”
That analogy captures where healthcare stands today. AI is everywhere in name, but true workflow-driven solutions are rare. The difference with AHS is its workflow-first mindset: fewer clicks, faster results, and a direct line to improving patient care.
For Coastal, this wasn’t about hype. It was about solving root problems: reducing delays, cutting administrative waste, and getting patients in front of the right specialists faster.
The Risk and the Reward
For Dr. Powell and JD Willson at Coastal, saying yes wasn’t without risk. Dr. Powell has met with countless vendors claiming they have solutions. The danger lies in devoting time and resources to a product that doesn’t deliver.
But AHS proved different. Coastal’s team came into the partnership with a deep understanding
of the problems they needed to solve—so much so that they had even tried to build a solution
themselves years earlier. That clarity made it possible to recognize when AHS had the right
answer. This is the essence of a strong partnership in healthcare innovation: knowing your problems clearly enough that, when the right solution appears, you can say yes with
confidence.
Feedback from Coastal then led to real-time product improvements—sometimes within hours.
What began as a referral tool is now reshaping radiology workflows and setting the stage for
broader adoption.
The impact goes beyond Coastal Health. This partnership demonstrates to other practices and hospitals how they can evaluate, adopt, and scale new technologies responsibly.
Why This Matters
Innovation is often slowed by silos, legacy systems, and fear of change. Especially so in healthcare where the stakes are high. Sessions like “They Said Yes” shine a light on what it takes to break through: visionary innovators, courageous first adopters, and a relentless focus on workflow and patient care.
For AI to make a truly positive impact in healthcare, it must do more than generate insights—it must remove obstacles to giving and receiving care while empowering doctors and patients to act quickly and accurately. For Dr. Jamie Wisser, this insight came from decades of clinical experience and years of building and testing solutions. His inside knowledge of workflows and processes shaped the requirements behind AHS, ensuring the platform wasn’t just innovative—it was a practical fit for other physicians.
Understanding how Dr. Wisser saw his way from problem to a working solution could be a blueprint for other innovators following in his steps.
Teaching Commercialization, Designing Great Events
I design conversations like Disrupt Health to do more than showcase innovation. I want to uncover the real playbook for bringing breakthrough science and technology to market.
By creating events, podcasts, and media that put pioneers and early adopters on stage together, I’m building a culture of shared learning that helps founders, clinicians, and
health leaders move from idea to impact faster—so that more people are ready to say yes to
innovation.
Learn more about
Disrupt Health at the Disrupt IT Conference: https://disruptitfl.com/
Actual HealthCare Solutions: actualhealthcaresolutions.com
More case studies in adoption of AI in healthcare: https://www.strat-
craft.com/learnwithstratcraft/ai-healthcare-report-info/report
Coastal Health: https://coastalhealth.com/