The market for artificial intelligence note-taking devices has exploded in the US, with the category generating more than $600 million in revenue last year, according to a Menlo Ventures report. And as startups like Heidi Health and Free have shown that there is decent demand for this technology in healthcare, where doctors and clinics see the potential for an AI assistant that can help them monitor patient conversations, display health records, and reduce their administrative burden.
But these apps don’t do much for patients, that’s why Kin Health builds a notebook that can transcribe your doctor visits, analyze medical advice and display next steps when required. To that end, the startup raised $9 million in a seed funding round led by Maveron.
The app is similar to an appointment notebook: You can log doctor visits and it will return an AI-powered summary of the appointment with next steps, all of which you can share with family and friends if you want. It also allows you to write down questions you might want to ask on your next visit.
Kin Health says it encrypts all patient data and that summaries remain private by default. The tool is not HIPAA-certified, as it is a patient-facing tool, but it complies with the same privacy standards, the company said.
The free app was created by doctors Arpan and Amit Parikh, along with Kyle Alwyn, who previously created the online prescription service HeyDoctor and sold it to health platform GoodRx. Doug Hirsch and Trevor Bezdek, co-founders of GoodRx, are founding partners and executive chairman of the company.
“We have a lot of these storage lockers where our health data can be kept, but we don’t have a way to turn it into a utility that we can use to change our behavior. Our goal is to create this health graph where we can store your information from many different sources,” Alwyn told TechCrunch on a call.
Kin Health says its summaries are provided after a few stages of processing. After the visit is transcribed, an algorithm converts the transcription into a clinical narrative, which is condensed into a user-directed summary with action items. The company says it relies on specialized medical models to trigger transcription, and that it evaluates and observes results at different stages to ensure the responses are accurate.
But AI in healthcare is being met with some caution and concern. Privacy experts and researchers have raised concerns over data security, AI accuracy, consent mechanisms, the quality of notes createdand them effectiveness.
AI bookmarks also often they fail to recognize and struggle to transcribe regional accents. Kin Health says it’s working to make sure its tool works with different accents, as well as when someone has a bad throat or is wearing a mask.
Dr. Rebecca Mishuris, chief health information officer and vice president at Mass General Brigham, a healthcare organization in Boston, says it’s important for doctors to review any AI-generated notes.
“Genetic AI will have hallucinations; that’s the nature of a technology based on patterns and prediction. That’s why it’s so important for clinicians to review prescription notes before signing them. At the end of the day, the responsibility for documentation lies with the clinician,” he told TechCrunch via email.
Kin Health currently only shows notes from conversations it captures during consultations, but the company said it plans to bring in data from other health sources, including doctors’ own notes through electronic health record (EHR) systems, this year.
The company says it will keep the app free forever and earn revenue through referrals to services like experts and workshops. The startup is taking a leaf from GoodRx’s playbook, which also keeps the core product free and earns commissions by referring other services.
Natalie Dillon, Maveron partner, said healthcare provider tools often expect patients to coordinate their own therapeutic actions. “Kin is built to solve a completely different consumer need: it can travel with them between specialists, systems and providers. It’s not dependent on any health network or EHR relationship. It’s built to serve the patient, not the institution, and that’s a huge distribution advantage,” he said.
Town Hall Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Flex Capital, Foundry Square Capital, Pear VC and The Family Fund also participated in the funding round. Hirsch and Bezdek of GoodRx. Angel investors Jay Desai, Nabeel Quryshi, Alex Cohen and Saharsh Patel. and more than 30 doctors also invested.
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