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Blog
Andy Pollen

How AI Platforms and Foundation Models Work Together

aiOS, Foundation Models, System Integration
Table of Contents

Healthcare leaders today are navigating a crowded AI landscape, full of solutions that promise transformation but often fail to explain how different components work together. One common area of confusion is the relationship between foundation models and AI platforms.

While these terms are often discussed in the same conversation, they serve fundamentally different roles. Foundation models are used to create scalable, multipurpose AI solutions. AI platforms are what deliver those solutions safely and effectively into real-world clinical environments.

Understanding how they work in tandem is key to deploying AI that doesn’t just sound impressive but actually delivers impact across a health system.

Foundation Models: The Factory

A foundation model isn’t a standalone tool, it’s more like a factory that can produce nearly any AI tool you need.

Trained on massive, multimodal datasets — imaging, clinical notes, electronic health record (EHR) data and lab results — foundation models develop generalized clinical intelligence. That broad knowledge base becomes the raw material for creating many different AI solutions.

From a single foundation, developers can fine-tune models for triage, detection, measurement, report generation, risk prediction and more. Think of it this way: 

  • A traditional AI model is like handcrafting a single tool — say, a flathead screwdriver — for one task. 
  • A foundation model is like building a factory. Once it’s up and running, it can produce not just screwdrivers but wrenches, hammers, saws — whatever tool is needed to get the job done.

Plus, it’s not just one tool at a time. Dozens, even hundreds, of clinical-grade AI solutions can be generated from the same foundation. That means faster development, greater consistency and a scalable path toward comprehensive clinical coverage.

Still, even the best tools aren’t useful if they never leave the factory.

AI Platforms: The Toolbox That Delivers Clinical Value

An AI platform, like Aidoc’s aiOS™, is what takes those tools and puts them to work. It’s not just a delivery system, it’s the shared infrastructure that ensures every AI solution is used effectively, safely and in the right context.

If the foundation model is the factory, the platform is the toolbox — the system that organizes, delivers and integrates each tool into daily clinical workflows.

A true clinical AI platform:

  • Orchestrates AI tools developed from foundation models (or traditional methods) and manages them at scale.
  • Connects natively to clinical systems like EHRs, PACS and mobile workflows.
  • Delivers insights through clinician-friendly interfaces directly into workflows.
  • Monitors real-time performance, engagement and outcomes through a shared telemetry layer.
  • Enables system-wide governance, compliance and standardization.

The platform ensures that each tool reaches the right team at the right moment and isn’t sitting unused. 

Why Both Are Essential

Foundation models and AI platforms solve different problems, and you need both to scale clinical AI.

One gives you reach, while the other helps deliver results. Together, they create a unified system that supports AI across specialties, settings and use cases with measurable impact.

Without a platform, even the most advanced models struggle to reach clinicians. Without foundation models, platforms are limited by the slow, narrow process of building one algorithm at a time.

Moving From Models to Systems of Intelligence

Health systems increasingly recognize that the old model — deploying one algorithm at a time — doesn’t scale. It leads to fragmented insights, limited coverage and heavy operational burden.

The future of clinical AI isn’t just more algorithms. It’s about building smarter systems — where foundation models and platforms work hand-in-hand to deliver measurable, enterprise-wide impact.

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Andy Pollen
Andy Pollen is an experienced healthcare communicator and strategist who currently serves as the Director of Marketing Communications for Aidoc. Previously, he was the global marketing communications lead for critical care solutions within 3M Health Care's Medical Solutions Division, now Solventum. Pollen has also held communications positions with the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, Indiana University Health and several business functions within Eli Lilly and Company through Borshoff, a creative services agency. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and journalism from Ball State University and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Anderson University.
Andy Pollen
Director, Marketing Communications

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