Hippocratic AI, a company on a mission to develop the first large language model (LLM) specifically designed for healthcare, has emerged from stealth mode and secured a significant $53 million in Series A funding. This investment propels their valuation to a staggering $500 million and brings their total funding to $120 million.
The funding round boasts prominent names like Premji Invest and General Catalyst, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, SV Angel, and a notable group of health system investors including Memorial Hermann Health System, Cincinnati Children’s, WellSpan Health, and Universal Health Services (UHS).
Founded by a team of accomplished entrepreneurs, physicians, and leading artificial intelligence researchers from prestigious institutions like El Camino Health, Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis, Stanford, Google, and Nvidia, Hippocratic AI focuses on building non-diagnostic, patient-facing applications powered by AI. Their initial product offering is a task-specific healthcare agent fueled by generative AI, designed for deployment through a unique “staffing marketplace.”
This innovative marketplace empowers healthcare systems and payers to “hire” these AI agents for tackling low-risk tasks such as chronic disease management, post-discharge follow-up care, and conducting wellness surveys. However, ensuring patient safety remains a top priority. These agents will not interact directly with patients until rigorous and comprehensive safety testing is complete.
“Since the founding of Hippocratic AI a year ago, the company trained its foundational model, achieved a key safety threshold, identified novel use cases to solve the healthcare staffing crisis, and established partnerships with 40 health systems, payers, and digital health companies,” expressed Hemant Taneja, CEO and Managing Director of General Catalyst, in a statement. He further lauded Hippocratic AI for its “sound execution and strategy” while prioritizing safety, highlighting its potential to become a “leading standard of radical collaboration” and play a pivotal role in transforming the healthcare landscape towards being more proactive, affordable, and accessible.
Another crucial aspect of Hippocratic AI’s approach is fostering empathetic AI agents. The company is working hand-in-hand with Nvidia to develop agents capable of natural, low-latency conversational interactions, a key factor in building trust with patients. At Nvidia’s GTC conference, the two companies showcased a prototype AI healthcare agent avatar equipped with realistic visuals and animations designed to enhance patient connection.
Beyond the funding and technology, Hippocratic AI’s commitment to safety is evident in their meticulous clinician-driven testing system for LLMs. This multi-phase program involves rigorous evaluation by healthcare professionals. The first two phases have already been completed, with phase three currently underway, involving thousands of healthcare professionals and partner health systems.
A research paper published this week sheds light on the promising results from the initial testing phases. Study participants rated the AI agent on par with human nurses in many areas, and the medium-sized AI agents significantly outperformed larger, general-purpose LLMs in terms of medical accuracy and safety.
For the ongoing phase three testing, Hippocratic AI has enlisted the collaboration of over 40 healthcare partners, including renowned names such as HonorHealth, Cincinnati Children’s, OhioHealth, Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Universal Health Services, ELNA, SonderMind, Vital Software, Capsule, Evernow, HarmonyCares, Guidehealth, University of Vermont Health Network, Memorial Hermann Health System, Fraser Health and Side Health. This expanded testing phase will involve a wider pool of nurses, physicians, and real-world healthcare settings, further refining the AI agents’ capabilities.
With its focus on safety, collaboration, and cutting-edge technology, Hippocratic AI stands poised to play a transformative role in the healthcare system. By leveraging AI-powered agents to address staffing shortages, improve patient communication, and streamline workflows, the company has the potential to make healthcare more efficient, affordable, and ultimately, more accessible for everyone.
One noteworthy aspect of Hippocratic AI’s approach is their emphasis on “empathy inference.” User tests have consistently shown that super low latency voice interaction is crucial for patients to build trust and connect naturally with the AI agents. Since LLMs rely on inference engines, Hippocratic AI has coined this low latency inference technique: “Empathy Inference.”
At Nvidia’s GTC conference, the two companies unveiled a prototype AI care manager (video) named “Diana” that utilizes the Nvidia Avatar Cloud Engine suite of technologies. This suite brings digital humans to life with generative AI, allowing the AI care manager to call patients, follow up on care coordination tasks, deliver preoperative instructions, and perform post-discharge management.
“Our digital assistants provide helpful, timely, and accurate information to patients worldwide,” said Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI. “Nvidia ACE technologies bring them to life with cutting-edge visuals and realistic animations that help better connect to patients.”
