Key points
- Patients benefit soonest when a pathway runs on a service that already works in clinics, with ownership written into the contract.
- Building on an API leaves the review screen, the audit log, the data agreements and the device question for your team to build and own.45
- On wai every surface reads the same patient record, so each new pathway extends one system.6
- A live platform shaped around your pathway comes with data, workflow, configuration and model rights, portability and exit in the contract.7
- Score each route on the questions in the table, from time to first patient to what you own when the contract ends.
Summary
Build on an API when the AI itself is your product and your team will own clinical review, logging, data agreements and regulatory status. Shape a live platform when clinicians and patients should be using the pathway this year, with data, workflow and exit rights written into the contract.
Clinicians and patients use the new pathway this year, and the organisation owns the data, the workflow and its configuration. That outcome comes from starting on a service that already runs in clinics and writing ownership into the contract.
See it in your clinicThirty minutes on your own patients and doctors.
Request a demoSee the first pathway we would build for your organisation, running on the live platform, with the people who build it.
| Question | Building on an API | Live platform you shape and own |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first patient | After the whole service is built | Starts from a running service |
| Clinician review and sign-off | Your team designs and builds it | Included, set per pathway |
| Audit log and export | Your team builds and retains it | Included and exportable |
| Data agreements and hosting | One agreement per layer of the stack | Agreed with you, hosted in your country |
| Medical device question | Answered for every function you offer | Assessed per pathway before live use |
| Fit to a new pathway | Anything, at build cost | Configured around your workflow |
| One record across services | Built by your team | One record across every surface |
| Ownership | Yours, under the API's model terms | Data, workflow, configuration and model rights in the contract |
| Exit | Yours, without the model | Portability and exit terms agreed up front |
The service around the model
Deloitte's 2026 outlook surveyed 180 health system executives in six countries in August and September 2025. About 30% ran generative AI at scale in select areas, and 2% had deployed AI across their entire enterprise.1
Reaching patients takes a clinician review and sign-off screen, an audit log, a record for the output to land in, an agreement with every party that touches patient data, and a view on whether the function is a medical device.
Building on an API
An API suits a company whose product is the AI itself, with clinical safety, information governance and regulatory people on the team alongside engineers. It gives full control of the experience and the model choice.
Under HIPAA, a subcontractor that creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information for a business associate is itself a business associate, so each layer of the stack needs its own agreement.4 A clinical decision support function offered under your own name needs a device assessment, and FDA's guidance, updated in January 2026, sets out which functions fall outside the device definition.5
WHO's guidance on large multi-modal models sets out more than 40 recommendations for governments, technology companies and providers, including engaging potential users and patients from the early stages of design.3
A live platform you shape and own
Start from a platform already running in clinics and build your pathway on it. Review screens, the record, the logs and the agreements are there on day one, and the organisation shapes the workflow, its data and its configuration.
With wai, the work begins in the clinic, defining one useful pathway with clinicians and operations staff and agreeing how its outcomes are measured. Components and integration scope are evaluated on the live platform before a build is committed, and the contract sets out data, workflow, configuration and model rights, portability and exit terms.7 Every surface reads the same patient record, so each new pathway extends one system.6 In a Deloitte survey of US health system executives, 53% named multiple disparate software platforms as a barrier to meeting data-sharing rules.2 The detail is on wai for digital health providers.
The questions that decide it
Weight each row in the scorecard for your organisation and write the answers into the contract. The cost side is in build or buy clinic AI.
Where to start
Name one pathway with a clinical owner and a measurable outcome, such as time from referral to first appointment or letters signed the same day, and name who reviews and signs every AI output in it.
Price both routes over three years, including the people you would hire to build and run them, and choose the one that brings patients a benefit soonest while you keep the data and the workflow. Contract terms are in the clinic AI procurement checklist.
Name one pathway and see how it would run on the live platform, with the rights you would hold.
Frequently asked questions
When is building on an API the right choice?
Does an API provider need a business associate agreement?
In the US, yes where it handles protected health information, because a subcontractor that creates, receives, maintains or transmits it for a business associate is itself a business associate.4
Who decides whether our AI feature is a medical device?
The organisation offering the function under its own name. FDA's clinical decision support guidance, updated January 2026, sets out which functions fall outside the device definition.5
What should the contract say about ownership?
It should set out data, workflow, configuration and model rights, portability and exit terms, as wai agrees with each organisation.7
How is a platform build priced with wai?
A fixed fee for the first build, then a monthly fee per site, with clinician seats and payments in the same agreement.7
Where is patient data hosted?
wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic.7
Sources
- 1Deloitte, 20252026 Global Health Care OutlookRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 2Deloitte, Chang and colleagues, 2021Greater transparency and interoperability in health careRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 3World Health Organization, 2024WHO releases AI ethics and governance guidance for large multi-modal modelsRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 4Electronic Code of Federal Regulations45 CFR 160.103, definitions, business associateRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 5US Food and Drug Administration, 2026Clinical Decision Support Software, guidance for industry and FDA staffRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 6wai, 2026The wai platform, one system across three surfacesRead 14 October 2026Read source
- 7wai, 2026wai for clinic groups and chains, how a build worksRead 14 October 2026Read source
Your first pathway live for patients, and owned by you.
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Thirty minutes on your own patients, doctors and rules, in your market. We reply within one working day, and the clinics that partner with us early shape what we build next.
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