Navigating healthcare in rural communities like Wise County is difficult and fragmented. Residents face confusing insurance language, limited local providers, and outdated or scattered information. Many people delay care simply because they do not know where to start.
During my time in Wise, I repeatedly heard the same questions about insurance, mental health services, and local clinics. Existing tools were not built for real-time guidance or everyday use. Wise Care was created to close this gap by providing clear, local, and personalized healthcare navigation through conversation.
Wise Care’s goal is to make healthcare navigation understandable and accessible for rural communities. We focus on accuracy, simplicity, and action. The platform is designed to give users clear explanations, local options, and practical next steps without requiring technical or insurance knowledge.
While Wise Care was started in Wise County, the long-term goal is to expand this model to other rural Appalachian communities facing the same challenges.
Wise Care is an AI-powered healthcare navigation system built using retrieval-augmented generation and cloud infrastructure.
Local healthcare documents and resources are extracted, structured, and stored in a searchable knowledge base. When a user asks a question, the system identifies relevant local content and injects it into the prompt sent to the language model.
Wise Care uses the GPT-4.1 model through the OpenAI API to generate responses. A structured system prompt ensures explanations are clear, accurate, and focused on healthcare navigation rather than diagnosis.
The backend is hosted on Cloudflare Workers for low latency and reliability. The front end is served through Cloudflare Pages and optimized for both mobile and desktop use. Safety checks, rate limits, and usage logging are built in to protect users and control costs.
The result is a fast, reliable chatbot that delivers personalized healthcare guidance grounded in real local data.
Wise Care aims to grow from a local access tool to a regional health navigation platform serving rural Appalachia.
We plan to:
Expand across Southwest Virginia, adapting the system for nearby counties.
Integrate telehealth scheduling and behavioral-health support.
Add new benefit layers—pharmacy, dental, and vision cost tools.
Partner with regional employers and insurers to embed Wise Care in benefit programs.
Long-term goal: To become the trusted digital front door to healthcare for rural America—starting right here in Wise, Virginia.
Protocol Verification
Crisis routing and intake contact information are verified directly with regional healthcare institutions, including Frontier Health, to ensure correct after-hours escalation (e.g., prioritizing 988 for emergencies).
Sensitive Data Storage
Wise Care is not intended for the submission of protected health information or sensitive personal medical data. Wise Care does not intentionally retain patient identifiers on its own systems as part of the chatbot experience.
Source Transparency & Provider-Based Data
Provider listings are sourced from official healthcare institutions and verified regional directories; when a response relies on a stored dataset, the associated source file is displayed for transparency.
Media coverage has played a role in raising awareness of the challenges many residents face when navigating healthcare, accessing reliable information, and understanding their options in Southwest Virginia, while highlighting how Wise Care is working to address these gaps.
Peter Gaublomme, a student at UVA Wise, created Wise Care out of a passion for using technology to solve real community challenges. While interning at an Information Technology Consulting Firm, he developed an AI healthcare advisor for federal employees — an experience that inspired him to bring the same innovation home to Wise, Virginia, to make healthcare access smarter and more local.
Our logo is based off the “LOVE” sign in the Gateway Gardens section of Wise, VA. Each letter represents something unique about the town. The sign was constructed by students at the Wise County Career and Technical School along with art students at Union High School.
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