USD Student’s Company Partners with Pharmacy to Bring AI Into Daily Health Care
Shivansh Rastogi, who is in his third year at USD and studying finance, applies the business lens he is learning beyond the classroom by observing how local businesses operate, noting their challenges and exploring where technology could intervene.
Recently, he partnered with Davis Pharmacy to deploy an AI-powered call handling system that now supports day-to-day pharmacy operations. For a business that has served South Dakota communities for nearly 146 years, adopting new technology is never done lightly—any changes must fit naturally into how care is delivered.
“Building something for a business like this raises the bar. It has to work consistently, fit naturally into existing workflows and respect the human side of care,” said Rastogi.
Elevaze’s system handles that delivery with ease by answering incoming calls in a natural, conversational voice. It also assists with prescription refill requests, common questions, call routing during business hours and after-hours messages, ensuring patients always have a clear way to reach the pharmacy. Rather than replacing staff or altering clinical care, the system was designed to quietly manage routine phone traffic, so pharmacists can stay focused on face-to-face patient care.
Davis Pharmacy, which is owned by Matt Lavin, is among the early independent pharmacies nationally to adopt this type of AI-supported call handling, demonstrating how long-established health care institutions can modernize operations without sacrificing personal care.
“Having Elevaze is a great addition to the pharmacy. This is my first time in my 30 years of being a pharmacist that I feel comfortable having a system helping with our phones,” Lavin said. “I am really looking forward to what Elevaze can do for businesses like mine, and I truly believe that Shivansh has created a tool that will touch and benefit many industries over time.”
For Rastogi, who presented Elevaze at the AI Edge Summit in Sioux Falls last fall, the project marks a shift from showcasing ideas to delivering real-world systems.
“The Davis Pharmacy partnership represents the next step, moving from a concept to a system that is trusted to operate inside a health care environment every day,” said Rastogi. Now live and in daily use, Elevaze’s system reflects the kind of applied learning emphasized at USD, where students don’t just study emerging technologies but build solutions that create tangible impact in the communities around them.
“USD creates an environment where you’re encouraged to take ideas outside the classroom and turn them into solutions that help real communities,” said Rastogi. “The Davis Pharmacy partnership is a perfect example of how implementing an idea positively affected a community. That experience changes how you think as a builder, because you’re designing for trust, consistency and real human outcomes, not just technical performance.”
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