Reducing the Call Burden: How TalkToMedi is Helping Clinics Connect

Nearly six million Canadians are without a primary care provider. Across the health system, administrative demands are making it harder for patients to access care.

U of T-affiliated startup TalkToMedi is working to ease this strain, starting at the front desk. The team has built a platform that manages incoming patient requests, handling routine calls and follow-ups to reduce the need for manual triage.

In many clinics, staff manage incoming calls while balancing other clinic responsibilities. These demands are often more visible in rural or specialty clinics, where staff and resources may be constrained.

For the founding TalkToMedi team, based at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, this gap became the focus. While much of the health tech sector is building tools for diagnosis, they looked at the first step of getting through to care.

The motivation came from personal experience. After a family member missed a follow-up call, the team began observing clinic workflows. They saw the same constraint repeated across settings. One staff member managing a high volume of requests with limited time to respond.

“We are turning a personal mission into a scalable solution,” the team explains. “We are focused on the immediate infrastructure problem: the call burden that dictates whether a patient can access care.”

Early pilots in Ontario clinics show strong results. More than 40,000 patient calls were processed through the platform, with 93% resolved without staff involvement. Clinics saved over 500 staff hours annually, easing pressure on clinic teams.

The work highlights a quieter part of the primary care crisis. Access is not only impacted by clinical capacity, but also by the systems that manage demand.

The startup recently closed a pre-seed round and is now expanding its tools for intake and communication, focusing on essential workflows like patient intake, follow-up communication, documentation, and prescription support, laying the groundwork for a fully connected, responsive system. Over the coming months, these features will roll out across Canada, supported by predictive analytics to ensure the platform adapts to the needs of both patients and clinics.

“By eliminating the administrative call burden, we are ensuring that healthcare remains a conversation and a priority for every patient,” the team shares.