As health systems race to deploy generative AI solutions for clinical documentation, startups in the space are jockeying for position. One of those vendors, Pittsburgh-based Abridge, has just picked up an additional $150 million investment and a significant new customer in Yale New Haven Health System.
The new funding comes just four months after Abridge raised $30 million in a Series B investment round.
Abridge said the deal with the Yale New Haven Health System, the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, will give thousands of clinicians access to Abridge for clinical documentation. Yale New Haven Health has selected Abridge as their generative AI partner in this area of ambient listening. The initial deployment will be focused on reducing the cognitive burden of clinical documentation, enabling clinicians to spend more face-to-face time engaging with patients instead of computers.
In August 2023, Healthcare Innovation interviewed Alistair Erskine, M.D., M.B.A., chief information and digital officer of Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, about why his organization signed an enterprise-wide agreement to make Abridge’s Epic-integrated solution for note-taking available to Emory clinicians over the next three years.
“What I was surprised about with Abridge, and what kind of piqued my curiosity, is that its technology is across the board. I don't need to wait until it tells me ‘Okay, we're good for cardiologists now.’ Right now, I have 20 doctors using it, and it's across all different specialties and I'm getting the same positive feedback from all of them,” Erksine said. (Since that interview, Emory's Abridge user base has grown to more than 500 doctors.)
Abridge said its “Linked Evidence” feature maps any highlighted region within a summary to the substantiating evidence in the source transcript (and thus to the underlying audio). The company also said it is developing novel ways to personalize notes, integrate more deeply into the EHR, and provide clinicians with after-visit insights.
The Series C investment was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, who will also join the board. Other new and existing investors include co-lead Redpoint Ventures, with support from IVP, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Wittington Ventures, Mass General Brigham Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Fund (AIDIF), Kaiser Permanente Ventures, and CVS Health Ventures.
