Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the healthcare business by delivering solutions that improve patient outcomes while decreasing expenses. AI is transforming healthcare delivery, from disease detection to medication discovery and customised treatments.
Meanwhile, Hippocratic AI, situated in Palo Alto, California, has raised $50M in seed funding for its safety-focused Large Language Model (LLM) created exclusively for healthcare. The round was co-led by General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz.
The company plans to utilise the money to broaden operations and customers.
Hippocratic was founded by a group of physicians, hospital managers, Medicare officials, and medical researchers and is called after the oath that doctors take to “do no harm.” The company’s artificial intelligence model is intended to be the first safety-oriented big language model especially focused on healthcare applications.
AI model’s functioning
The company’s AI model will not be involved in medical diagnosis or direct patient interaction. This will allow the company to focus on developing the chatbot’s safety features and guardrails. As previously demonstrated, generative AI models such as ChatGPT are susceptible to errors known as “hallucinations,” in which the AI confidently makes erroneous remarks.
“RLHF with healthcare professionals isn’t just a feature but is really our commitment to partner deeply with the industry,” said Munjal Shah, Co-Founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI. “We aren’t just saying these professions will help us evaluate our system. We are saying we won’t launch each unique role for the LLM unless the professionals who do that exact task today agree the system is ready and safe.”
“In healthcare settings, it isn’t just important to answer the patient accurately. It is equally important that it is done with great bedside manner. Many studies have shown that bedside manner impacts emotional well-being and quality of outcomes. This isn’t just true for doctors but also true for everyone interacting with patients: billing agents, schedulers, and more,” said Meenesh Bhimani MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Hippocratic AI.
“After working with Munjal and team for years in his prior company, we know that his lived experience as a healthcare and tech operator gives him an edge in understanding what it takes to bring high-ROI products to market – especially at a time when existing industry players are in such dire need of better operating leverage and financial sustainability. We believe Hippocratic AI’s cross-disciplinary, safety-first approach is what the healthcare industry needs to be able to maintain trust in the power of responsible deployment of generative AI solutions,” said Julie Yoo, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Since the company will be working with individuals in the healthcare sector, it is also concentrating on making its AI model more humanlike in its capacity to converse, or what Hippocratic refers to as its “bedside manner.” The AI should present itself with an aura of not just confidence but also care and concern that puts patients at ease, similar to how most doctors and nurses approach patients with empathy and compassion.
Hippocratic AI will train its models with healthcare staff, and the company intends to engage closely with healthcare system clients during the development phase, as their patients will be the ultimate consumers.
