Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Model Context Protocol, usually shortened to MCP, is a way for an AI assistant to connect to a specific piece of software, in a standard way, and use it during a conversation. For a DME operation, that means an assistant can be connected directly to the tracking and billing data a business already has, rather than the operator copying numbers into a chat window by hand.

The connection is scoped and permissioned like any other login: an admin authorizes it once, it applies to that one business's data only, and it can be revoked at any time. A well-built connection is also read-mostly by design, an assistant can look things up and make a narrow set of specific edits, but it should never be able to delete records or make changes a person did not ask for.

In practice, this turns questions that used to require pulling a report and doing the math by hand, what rents out the least, what is the margin on hospital beds, what is about to run low, into something an operator can just ask, in the same conversation where they might ask about anything else in the business.