AskEllyn is the world's first AI companion for breast cancer support. built on the lived experience of Ellyn Winters-Robinson, a breast cancer survivor and author of Flat Please, Hold the Shame.
Now live on Cigna Healthcare's breast cancer community, AskEllyn provides multilingual, empathetic support to patients and families in over 100 countries and 50+ languages.
The Challenge
Breast cancer patients face an overwhelming amount of information at the moment they're least equipped to process it. Support resources are fragmented, clinical, and rarely available at 2am when the anxiety hits hardest. Healthcare providers can't scale one-on-one support to every patient who needs it.
The Worker
AskEllyn isn't a medical tool. it's a companion. Built on Ellyn's personal journey, the worker provides non-medical support with warmth, empathy, and the kind of understanding that only comes from lived experience.
- Conversational and multilingual. available in 50+ languages, meeting patients wherever they are
- Emotionally intelligent. trained on real patient conversations and Ellyn's personal narrative
- Always available. 24/7 support that doesn't require an appointment or a waitlist
- Licensed by a major insurer. deployed on Cigna Healthcare for digital patient engagement
The Impact
Since launch, AskEllyn has been used in over 100 countries with 100,000+ conversations. The worker was a panelist at a GE conference and passed through their quality control process. a milestone for AI in healthcare.
AskEllyn represents what's possible when AI is grounded in real human experience rather than just clinical data.
What's Next
AskEllyn continues to improve through real-world conversations. The model is being refined based on patient interactions, and new deployment channels are in development to reach more patients through the platforms they already use.
