Revolutionary AI technology transforming stroke care across Arizona

$800,000 investment brings life-saving innovation to Banner Health network

9/1/2025

Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a stroke. In the critical moments that follow, a harsh reality emerges: time is brain. The longer a patient waits for treatment, the more brain tissue dies, increasing the chances of disability or death. For stroke patients across Arizona, however, a revolutionary artificial intelligence solution known as Viz.ai is changing everything.

With the platform initially funded by charitable gifts to the Banner Health Foundation, Viz.ai uses artificial intelligence to accelerate care coordination, reducing systemic delays that stand between patients and life-saving treatments. It’s an innovative way of using technology to transform patient care.

Banner’s stroke team is utilizing the platform to provide timely review, assessment and decision-making for stroke care both at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix and throughout Banner’s community hospitals across metro Phoenix. The technology allows community hospital providers to access the expertise of our renowned vascular neurologists who can review imaging for stroke patients across the region, right from their smartphone any time of day or night. Being able to access their expertise in real time allows for faster decision-making and implementation of appropriate treatment or, when necessary, guidance on transferring the patient to the best hospital for the right level of care.

Currently, 15 Banner hospitals utilize Viz.ai technology, with plans to expand the telephonic stroke program and full neuroscience suite to all facilities by mid-2026.

“The Viz.ai technology has allowed our team to significantly reduce the time for assessing and communicating a stroke diagnosis and beginning treatment, resulting in far better outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Andrei Alexandrov, Chair of the Department of Neurology at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix and Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix. “Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of long-term disability. Minutes matter, and Viz.ai has changed our ability to save patients and preserve their quality of life.”

The inspiration behind Viz.ai technology came from a heartbreaking story—a patient who underwent successful brain surgery yet still died because the surgery came too late. Despite having access to excellent medical care, systemic but preventable process delays negated the patient’s treatment. This tragedy sparked a mission in the company’s founders to eliminate the time barriers that stand between stroke patients and life-saving care.

Thanks to an $800,000 investment from Banner Health Foundation donors, this mission has become reality across the Banner Health network.

From 57 Minutes to 6: A Life-Saving Transformation

The impact has been nothing short of extraordinary. Within the Banner system, the previous response time for communicating a stroke diagnosis was 57 minutes. With Viz.ai, that time has been reduced to just six minutes—a 90% improvement that translates directly into saved lives and reduced disability.

What used to take several hours now is recognized by the software within a matter of minutes, allowing physicians to know about these patients before they’ve even returned to their hospital room from the CT scan.

Viz.ai automatically analyzes CT scans of Emergency Department patients—even those outside the Banner system in Arizona—and immediately alerts Banner stroke providers via their smartphones. The AI overlays CT scan images and sends real-time messages to providers, indicating whether imaging shows a clot, stroke, or bleed and if the patient will benefit from a transfer to Banner's Comprehensive Stroke Center for a complex procedure.

The results speak for themselves. Banner has reduced transfer times by an average of 24 minutes across the Valley, creating dramatically better outcomes for patients. In one remarkable example, a stroke patient arriving by ambulance at Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center in Sun City can now be airlifted to Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix and already receiving stroke treatment in under an hour.

A Legacy of Leadership in Stroke Care

Banner Health’s commitment to stroke innovation runs deep. Having developed Arizona's first Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Center at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, Banner continues to leverage advanced technologies to improve patient outcomes.

Shelly Massingale, Banner’s senior director for Neurosciences and Sports Medicine, explains that “Banner’s ‘One Team’ approach is being used in its highest capacity because of the philanthropic efforts of us getting Viz.ai to our facilities."

As Banner Health continues expanding this life-saving technology across its network, the impact of philanthropic investment in innovation becomes increasingly clear. Gifts that allowed Banner to pilot the Viz.ai technology represents far more than a financial contribution—they have turned out to be an investment in countless lives that will be saved, disabilities prevented, and families kept whole.