CVS, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic invest in Abridge

Photo: Reza Estakhrian/Getty Images

CVS Health Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Mayo Clinic are among the healthcare organizations investing $30 million in Abridge's latest funding round.

The Series B funding was led by Spark Capital and also included existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners as well as SCAN Group, Lifepoint Health, UC Investments (University of California) and the American College of Cardiology. 

WHY THIS MATTERS

The investment will support large-scale health system rollouts and accelerate product advances, said Abridge, which focuses on generative AI for clinical documentation.

Abridge's software converts a patient-clinician conversation into a structured clinical note draft in real-time, using proprietary AI. Clinicians save over two hours a day in administrative burden, the company said. 

In recent implementations, over 91% of notes across over 40 specialties were drafted solely with AI, requiring minimal input from the clinician. The software has been designed with auditability, giving providers the ability to see source data from any AI-generated summary.

Abridge's claim is that it is the only company that maps AI-generated summaries to ground truth, helping providers verify recommendations. 

"We share Abridge's vision of doing all we can to help clinicians focus on their patients, rather than needing to multitask with documentation," said Dr. John D. Halamka, president of the Mayo Clinic Platform.

"At UCI Health (University of California Irvine), our dedicated focus is on enhancing operational efficiency and simplifying documentation for our physicians and caregivers. The decision to invest in Abridge reflects our commitment to achieving these goals and, importantly, addressing clinician burnout," said Scott Joslyn, chief innovation officer of UCI Health. 

THE LARGER TREND

Buzz around AI has grown this year, with much of its use in healthcare centered on reducing clinical burden, particularly in note-taking. 

Abridge's recent collaboration with Epic means its software is available in EHR clinical workflows for health systems using that platform. In August, Epic named Abridge its first Pal in its "Partners and Pals" program. .

ON THE RECORD

"The investment and support of these iconic institutions is a game-changer for Abridge, dramatically accelerating what we can do to solve a critical issue facing every health system," said Dr. Shiv Rao, cofounder and CEO of Abridge. "We are grateful to have an extraordinary and rapidly expanding group of partners who share our ambition to preserve the empathy and humanity in healthcare by enabling clinicians to be more present with their patients."
 

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org