After more than 20 years, BlackDoctor is revamping its mission to make health more accessible to Black Americans.

Black Doctor 2.0

Formerly BlackDoctor.org, BlackDoctor has relaunched as a 360-degree health destination driven by the motto “Where Culture Meets Care,” according to a press release. The platform has expanded its reach to a network of over 20,000 practitioners, making it the largest single database of black healthcare professionals in America, according to BlackDoctor President Akinwole (Aki) Garrett.

“We have pretty much every Black HCP (healthcare professional) in our database across the country,” Garrett told AFROTECH™ in an interview.

Users will have expanded access to Black healthcare providers using the Find a Doctor tool, while healthcare providers will have a more actionable network, he shared. Soon, BlackDoctor’s network will extend to culturally sensitive physicians, referring to those who serve a high population of Black patients but are not Black.

WellBot

What’s more, the rebrand also includes AI-powered features that will benefit healthcare professionals and consumers. One of them is WellBot, an AI-powered clinical simulation tool that has a chat or talk feature and is informed by over 20 years of clinical data, editorials on its website, and real-world insights from Black medical experts, according to Garrett.

In the simulation, healthcare professionals will engage with realistic virtual patients from diverse backgrounds while managing diagnostic uncertainty, time constraints, and complex social factors, he mentioned.

The tool can analyze clinical reasoning, questioning patterns, treatment choices, and communication style, according to the press release. It can also incorporate contextual details — such as foods commonly found in a patient’s community or reasons someone may or may not buy organic — to help clinicians better understand cultural and environmental influences on health decisions.

Additionally, the simulation can analyze how responses vary, such as whether clinicians answer differently based on a patient’s region or race.

WellBot will then be able to provide feedback to reveal any of the provider’s blind spots, Garrett said, with a grade assessed based on the interaction.

The goal is to improve real-world decision-making, reduce bias in healthcare, and strengthen equitable, patient-centered care with Black patients, he noted. Physicians will also receive a grade highlighting what they did correctly and where improvements are needed.

“There was a great quote that I read recently on LinkedIn by a physician named Iqra Aftab, where she said, ‘Cultural fluency isn’t a nice to have, it’s clinical infrastructure,'” Garrett told AFROTECH™. “…With America being such a diverse country, if you’re not culturally fluent, if you don’t have an understanding of other cultures, you’re not understanding how actually to talk to and communicate with people of different backgrounds.”

He added, “You really have to understand the audience that you’re speaking to to be able to treat them, communicate with them, connect with them, and deliver in a way that optimizes the outcomes from a care perspective. So that’s why we generated this tool.”

WellBot will be featured on BlackDoctor Pro, a professional-facing platform for healthcare professionals.

Health On Point

Another innovation is the debut of Health On Point, a consumer-facing wellness tool powered by an AI agent. The tool allows users on BlackDoctor.com to interact with an AI agent, which depicts providers of both genders, Garrett mentioned. Users can ask questions and share health concerns with the agent, generating guidance designed to help patients better prepare for upcoming clinical visits.

The tool can assess factors such as health risks, symptoms, and care decisions that disproportionately affect Black communities, he noted. It will provide guidance across some of the larger morbidity issues, such as high blood pressure, prostate cancer, breast cancer, maternal health, sickle cell disease, and kidney disease. More conditions will be added as time goes on, Garrett added.

Each condition is supported by a specialized knowledge base designed to tailor the AI’s responses.

Taking it a step further, patients can also ask the AI agent suggested questions to consider, Garrett mentioned. Patients will receive a transcript of their conversation with the AI agent, which they can bring to their doctor to facilitate a more productive visit.

“What this is really meant to do is to help with visit preparedness … It’s almost like rehearsing the visit before the visit happens,” he told AFROTECH™. “When you walk into the visit, you feel much more comfortable. And again, because this is sourced from medically reviewed content, the responses you’re getting back are medically accurate.”

The Health On Point tool will officially go live on March 11.

The Pulse/ BlackDoctor Sessions

Additional updates are the launch of The Pulse, the platform’s first podcast franchise that will depict real patient journey conversations, according to the press release. Separately, BlackDoctor Sessions will also be rolled out as an expert-led video series that will dive into culturally sensitive issues in medicine, wellness, and health equity.

Medical Advisory Board

BlackDoctor 2.0 is also supported by a Medical Advisory Board, consisting primarily of physicians across different specialties, who will assist with strategy development and strengthen the mission of health equity through thought leadership, research, education, and community engagement, the press release confirmed.

Those behind BlackDoctor 2.0 seek to make an impact by improving the health and quality of life of Black Americans while expanding access to culturally responsive healthcare professionals and tools.