Northbridge Medical Center today announced a pilot deployment of Cura, a patient-facing care-navigation experience built on top of WebMD Ignite's DX Engine. The pilot runs across all six Northbridge campuses through the end of 2026.
Most patients describe their symptoms in their own words long before they choose a specialty. Cura uses a structured triage model to read that plain language, ask two clarifying questions, and route patients to the most appropriate Northbridge clinician - typically within sixty seconds.
The system is explicit about what it does not do. Cura does not diagnose. It does not replace clinical judgment. It does not interact with a patient's chart. Its sole job is to make the act of starting care easier.
Internal data from pilot weeks one through three shows a 38% reduction in first-visit mis-routing, the kind of outcome that translates into faster diagnoses and fewer wasted visits. Early patient satisfaction (CSAT) scores in the program sit at 4.8 / 5.
"We've watched patients struggle for years with the question of where to start," said Dr. Sarah Chen, the orthopedic surgeon serving as physician lead for the pilot. "Cura is an attempt to remove that friction without ever pretending to be a doctor."
The model behind Cura is reviewed quarterly by Northbridge's clinical AI governance council, which includes physicians from every service line, IT, compliance, and patient experience.