Ankr VCX tackles front-office bottlenecks increasingly recognized as a primary driver of access delays in specialty care
BIRMINGHAM, AL, UNITED STATES, January 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Ankr Health, a Y Combinator and MedTech Innovator–backed company advancing AI-agentic workflow solutions for medical front offices, today announced the successful deployment of its Sol AI Scribe and Frank AI Scheduler Agents of its VCX platform, at Southlake Orthopaedics, a leading orthopedic practice serving patients across the Birmingham, AL metro area.The deployment expands Ankr’s footprint in orthopedics and reinforces its momentum across high-volume specialty practices.
Southlake Orthopaedics is leveraging Ankr’s VCX platform, including the Sol AI Scribe and Frank AI Scheduler, to manage patient calls and messages more efficiently and streamline front office workflows.
Across the U.S., orthopedic practices face mounting pressure from growing patient demand, declining reimbursements, and persistent staffing shortages. Patients call their doctors an average of ten times per year, while message volumes have increased dramatically following federal mandates for patient portal access. These dynamics place significant strain on front office teams and can delay time-sensitive care.
Ankr’s VCX platform was designed to address these challenges by augmenting front office operations with three integrated AI agents that work together across complex clinical workflows:
• Mira, the AI medical assistant, triages incoming calls and messages, integrates with phone systems, and routes patients appropriately while respecting clinical and regulatory boundaries.
• Frank, the AI scheduling agent, manages the full appointment lifecycle, verifying insurance, applying practice-specific business rules, and filling open clinic slots autonomously through deep EHR integration.
• Sol, the ambient AI scribe, generates detailed clinical and nursing notes across phone, video, and in-person encounters, writing directly into the EHR in a format clinicians recognize and trust.
Together, these agents enable orthopedic teams to respond to patients faster, reduce repetitive administrative work, and convert previously uncompensated interactions into appropriate, billable care.
“Orthopedic practices manage some of the highest volumes of patient communication in medicine, often while physicians are in the OR or procedural settings,” said Ray Rao, MD, CEO of Ankr Health. “Southlake Orthopaedics represents exactly the type of practice we built the AI Agents of VCX for high-acuity, high-volume environments where delays in communication directly affect patient experience, staff burnout, and revenue. Our platform allows teams to deliver faster responses without adding headcount.”
Ankr’s real-world deployments across specialties including orthopedics, gastroenterology, cardiology, oncology, and urology have demonstrated measurable impact. Customers report faster patient response times, meaningful reductions in front office overhead, and $25,000–$35,000 in incremental annual revenue per physician by streamlining the entire process of responding of patient calls and messages.
This announcement follows a period of rapid growth for Ankr Health, which is now available for nearly 1,900 physician groups nationwide.
About Ankr Health
Ankr Health is a venture-backed healthcare technology company building one intelligent platform for medical front-office operations. Its flagship platform, VCX, orchestrates patient communication, scheduling, and clinical documentation as a unified system, enabling faster, more responsive care without adding staff. By coordinating decisions and workflows end-to-end, rather than deploying isolated point solutions, Ankr helps specialty practices expand patient access, reduce administrative strain, and operate sustainably amid rising demand and workforce constraints. Ankr Health is backed by Y Combinator and MedTech Innovator.
To learn more about Ankr Health and its VCX platform, visit www.ankrhealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn for updates.
About Southlake Orthopedics
Southlake Orthopedics is a leading orthopedic practice serving patients across the Central Alabama region. The practice provides comprehensive orthopedic care, combining advanced clinical expertise with a commitment to efficient, patient-centered service.
Media Contact:
Madelyn De Los Santos
Putnam Insights LLC
madelyn@putnaminsights.com
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