Hey everyone,

I’m building a healthcare AI product focused on clinical reasoning + medico-legal documentation for doctors. I’m at the prototype stage, and I want to move fast into real-world validation with clinics/hospitals (not just build in isolation).

I’d really appreciate practical, no-BS advice from folks who’ve built AI/LLM products or sold into healthcare.

Where I am right now:

• Clear use case + product structure
• Can build a working prototype using APIs
• Goal: get actual doctors using it, not just demos

Key constraints (important):

• I have access to domain-specific data
• I do NOT want to use this data to train models right now
• I want to preserve it and later fine-tune open-source models (once I have enough volume/structure)
• For now: thinking prompting + structured inputs + maybe retrieval, but unsure

What I’m stuck on:

1. What is the minimum prototype that actually convinces a doctor?
Is a:

• simple form → LLM output → PDF enough?

Or do I need proper backend + infra before approaching institutions?

2. Infra decisions (don’t want to overbuild):
Should I:

• just use APIs (like OpenAI / Anthropic)
• or start with open-source (Llama etc.) early?

What’s the leanest stack to validate fast?

3. Data strategy (this is critical for me):

• I want to use LLMs without “giving away” my data advantage
• Not training now, but saving structured data for future fine-tuning

What’s the right approach early?

• pure prompting?
• RAG?
• mock/simulated outputs?

4. How do I get REAL validation from hospitals?
Not “this looks interesting”

But something like:

• “we’ll pilot this”
• or even better: “we’ll pay for this”

What exactly should I ask them for?

5. If I have limited money, where should it go?

• API usage?
• cloud?
• design?
• or just talking to users?

Goal (next 3–6 months):

• 50–100 real doctor users
• consistent usage
• proof this solves an actual problem

If you’ve:

• built in AI/ML/LLMs
• worked with healthcare products
• or gone from 0 → validation

I’d really value your direct advice on what to do / what not to do.

Thanks 🙏

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