Abridge has made significant strides in developing AI-based documentation solutions tailored for the healthcare sector. Over the past year, the company has experienced a surge in growth, driven by a confluence of factors that CEO Shivdev Rao, M.D., aptly describes as a “tornado of tailwinds.”
Abridge’s technology addresses two predominant trends in healthcare: the escalating issue of clinician burnout and the swift adoption of generative AI. Rao emphasised the severity of clinician burnout, labelling it a public health emergency. Traditional methods to combat this issue are becoming obsolete, and the healthcare sector is in dire need of innovative solutions. Rao highlighted the urgency, noting the alarming statistic that two out of five doctors are contemplating leaving the healthcare profession in the upcoming years. This underscores the necessity for technological interventions.
Generative AI, another significant trend, has showcased its potential to be a part of the solution. Abridge has successfully demonstrated, across large health systems, that this technology can enhance the care delivery experience. It alleviates the clerical burdens that clinicians face, which Rao poignantly described as “crushing their souls at night.”
Founded in 2018, Abridge utilises AI to augment the speed and precision of medical note-taking. Their unique software harnesses a proprietary dataset, sourced from over 1.5 million medical encounters, to instantaneously transform patient-clinician dialogues into structured clinical note drafts. This innovative approach has garnered significant financial backing. The company recently secured $30 million in a series B funding round, bringing their total funding to an impressive $62.5 million. This financial boost aims to facilitate the large-scale rollout of Abridge’s technology across health systems and further refine their product to deliver enhanced value to patients, clinicians, and health systems alike.
Spark Capital spearheaded the funding round, with notable investors such as CVS Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Mayo Clinic lending their support. Dr. John D. Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, expressed his institution’s alignment with Abridge’s vision, emphasising the importance of allowing clinicians to concentrate on patient care rather than juggling documentation tasks.
As CVS delves deeper into the realm of healthcare services, the retail pharmacy giant has expressed interest in integrating Abridge’s technology for primary care clinicians. This sentiment was echoed by Vijay Patel, managing partner and co-founder of CVS Health Ventures, who praised the dedication and innovation of the Abridge team.
Abridge’s solution has proven its efficacy, saving clinicians over two hours of administrative work daily. In recent deployments, a staggering 91% of notes across over 40 specialities were drafted solely using their AI, necessitating minimal clinician input. Rao highlighted a unique feature of Abridge’s technology: its ability to map AI-generated summaries to the source data, fostering trust and transparency.
In the past year, Abridge has formed several significant partnerships to broaden the reach of its AI-powered medical note-taking service. Notably, electronic health record titan Epic has integrated Abridge’s generative AI for clinical documentation into its EHR clinical workflow. This collaboration has been adopted by renowned health systems such as The University of Kansas Health System, UPMC, and Emory Healthcare.
Abridge’s commitment to transparency, reliability, and credibility in the application of generative AI in healthcare is commendable. They have consistently demonstrated their expertise through the publication of peer-reviewed computer science papers, emphasising their dedication to transparency and trust.
By alleviating clinicians’ administrative burdens, Abridge is essentially championing the cause of human-centric healthcare, where doctors can focus more on patient care and less on paperwork. This could potentially lead to a paradigm shift in how healthcare is delivered, with a renewed emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship.
