Anna Shichanina

Research assistant in the team of Professor Angela Aristidou, in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

Semi-finalist: top-75 out of 1200 competitors. Pitching competition (competed in 4/5 rounds) + workshops from Santander.

I founded Avant, an AI-powered clinical assistant designed to reduce administrative burden in UK primary care. Recognising how documentation, cognitive load, and fragmented workflows contribute to GP burnout, I led the development of a tool that listens to consultations, generates structured clinical notes, and supports safer clinical reasoning, allowing clinicians to focus on patients rather than paperwork. To validate the problem space, I conducted more than 300 in-depth interviews with GPs and primary care stakeholders, uncovering consistent pain points around time pressure, documentation quality, and trust in clinical software. These insights directly informed Avant’s core product features, including real-time transcription, clinician-controlled summaries, and AI-assisted follow-up prompts designed to support, not replace, medical decision-making. Beyond product development, I led user research, clinical safety thinking, early go-to-market strategy, and pilot conversations with GP practices. Avant was part of the UCL Venture Builder programme and reached the semi-finals of the Santander X UK Awards, recognising its potential impact in primary care innovation.

University College London School of Management MSc Entrepreneurship