Talk of the town: chatbot med-tech firm banks $10 million in funding
A Wrocław med-tech firm has received $10 million in funding to help it expand into German and US markets.
Infermedica, which was founded in 2012 by Piotr Orzechowski, received the funding from two new partners the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Heal Capital, as well as from existing investors Karma Ventures, Inovo Venture Partners and Dreamit Ventures.
“The new funds will help us grow into the next stage of our evolution focused on developing robust AI-based clinical decision support solutions for both patients and doctors,” says Orzechowski.
“The new funds will help us grow into the next stage of our evolution focused on developing robust AI-based clinical decision support solutions for both patients and doctors,” said Orzechowski. “The current investment round is another significant step ahead for our company. This additional funding will enable us to continue developing our technology and expanding our commercial operations, especially in the US and Germany. Now we can move much faster, explore new paths and most importantly expand our amazing team.”
The company’s services help users to identify patients’ symptoms and assign them to the appropriate department before they enter the healthcare system by using a chatbot, where people can ask questions about their health problems.
So far the chatbot is available in 17 languages, and has dealt with over 6 million cases.
So far the chatbot is available in 17 languages, and has dealt with over 6 million cases for the 50 partner companies using the software. Infermedica offers telemedicine software that operates on a business to business (B2B) model with insurance companies such as Allianz Worldwide Partners, Microsoft, Global Excel, Médis, PZU Zdrowie, Sana Kliniken and Everyday Health.
“We’re focused on improving the way patients make decisions about their symptoms,” added Orzechowski. “According to studies, the majority of internet users search online when they’re feeling unwell, but it’s hard to find accurate and personalised answers about our own health. To help everyone evaluate their symptoms in a quick and reliable way, we’ve developed a carefully curated AI platform that asks diagnostic questions and computes likelihoods of primary care conditions. With nearly 40,000 hours of physician work and 6,000,000 completed user check-ups, we are among the most trusted vendors of symptom checking technology,” Orzechowski said.
The Infermedica staff.
Expansion into the profitable American healthcare market, the most lucrative in the world, is not just an end goal. The firm is looking to expand beyond its current system and take a big step forward in the healthcare market.
“We believe that in 5-10 years an FDA-approved chatbot combined with medical devices will be used to treat common health problems, significantly improving primary care physicians' everyday work,” said Orzechowski. “Our ultimate goal is to make primary care more accessible, accurate, and comfortable for everyone. So far, our solutions have been focused on triaging patients and routing them to the most suitable point of care, thus saving time, unnecessary visits, and scarce clinical resources. Now, as the next step on the path to the ‘Virtual GP’, we are working on clinical decision support capabilities such as automating mundane documentation tasks to save physicians time and providing them with rich and structured insights.”
