TL;DR:
- Paris-based startup Nabla secures $24 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from ZEBOX Ventures.
- Nabla’s AI co-pilot for doctors streamlines note-taking, transcribing, and report generation during medical consultations.
- Nabla reached a valuation of $180 million following the funding round and anticipates additional U.S. investments.
- The company prioritizes assisting doctors rather than replacing them and aims to enhance efficiency in healthcare.
- Nabla’s AI transcription technology works seamlessly for in-person and telehealth consultations.
- Customizable medical reports cater to doctors’ preferences, including popular SOAP note patterns.
- Data privacy is paramount, with no storage of audio recordings and secure handling of transcripts.
- Nabla’s refined speech-to-text algorithms ensure accuracy in medical data transcription.
- The company explores specialized language models for further improvements.
Main AI News:
In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare technology, Paris-based startup Nabla is making significant strides with its innovative AI assistant designed specifically for medical professionals. The company recently closed a successful $24 million Series B funding round, with Cathay Innovation leading the charge, joined by ZEBOX Ventures, the corporate VC fund of CMA CGM. This achievement follows closely on the heels of Nabla’s strategic partnership with Permanente Medical Group, a division of the esteemed U.S. healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente.
Remarkably, Nabla has reached an impressive valuation of $180 million as a result of this latest funding round, and there are indications that additional investments from U.S. stakeholders could bolster this figure even further.
Nabla’s core mission revolves around providing doctors and medical staff with an AI co-pilot that operates as an unobtrusive work companion. This digital assistant quietly observes medical consultations, meticulously takes notes, and autonomously generates comprehensive medical reports. Spearheaded by the company’s founders, Alexandre Lebrun, Delphine Groll, and Martin Raison, Nabla’s CEO, Alexandre Lebrun, brings a wealth of experience from his previous role as the CEO of Wit.ai, an AI startup acquired by Facebook. Subsequently, he assumed leadership of Facebook’s AI research lab, FAIR.
A recent live demonstration of Nabla in action showcased its remarkable capabilities. In a simulated doctor-patient interaction, Nabla seamlessly transcribed the conversation, creating an accurate and valuable medical report. Even in a crowded room, with the software running on a laptop several meters away from the demonstration, Nabla’s performance remained impressive.
Nabla utilizes speech-to-text technology to convert spoken consultations into written transcripts, catering to both in-person and telehealth appointments. Once the patient departs, the doctor concludes the session, prompting Nabla to leverage its extensive medical database and conversational insights. It efficiently identifies critical information such as medical vitals, drug names, and pathologies, culminating in the creation of a detailed medical report, complete with prescriptions and follow-up instructions.
Crucially, Nabla’s reports are highly customizable to meet individual doctors’ preferences, allowing for personalized formatting and specific instructions. This adaptability extends to note patterns, including the widely used Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) format commonly employed in the U.S.
It’s important to note that Nabla’s solution is not designed to replace human medical professionals. Instead, it aims to streamline administrative tasks, empowering doctors to allocate more time and attention to their patients. As Lebrun puts it, “We work by their side.“
The journey of AI in healthcare, according to Lebrun, follows a trajectory similar to that of autonomous vehicles, gradually advancing through levels. Nabla is currently operating at “level two,” assisting doctors in their clinical work. In the near future, they plan to introduce “level three,” offering clinical assurance support. Ultimately, “level four” will involve clinical decision support, subject to FDA approval. Lebrun acknowledges the potential for “level five,” which envisions a more autonomous healthcare system, but remains cautious about its implementation.
Nabla’s impact is most pronounced in the United States, where it has gained substantial traction, particularly among the Permanente Medical Group’s network of doctors. Nabla’s solution is actively used by thousands of medical professionals on a daily basis.
Data privacy is a paramount concern for Nabla. The company offers its AI assistant as a web app and Google Chrome extension, ensuring sensitive data is handled with the utmost care. Importantly, Nabla does not store audio recordings or medical notes on its servers unless both the doctor and the patient provide explicit consent. Instead, the emphasis is on data processing, with audio files discarded after consultations and transcriptions securely stored within the Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems already in use by doctors.
Nabla’s approach to transcription is highly sophisticated. Utilizing a combination of Microsoft Azure’s speech-to-text API and their own refined model, they ensure accuracy and quality in transcribing medical conversations. Pseudonymization is the initial step, replacing personally identifiable information with variables, followed by processing through a large language model, historically GPT-3 and GPT-4, with Nabla’s enterprise status exempting them from data storage and model training by OpenAI.
The company is also exploring the use of more specialized models, such as a fine-tuned version of Llama 2. In their vision for the future, Nabla seeks to employ increasingly tailored models rather than general-purpose ones.
Conclusion:
Nabla’s substantial funding and innovative AI clinical assistant represent a significant step toward enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of medical consultations. While prioritizing data privacy and customization, Nabla’s technology is poised to empower healthcare professionals and improve patient care. This development underscores the growing potential of AI in revolutionizing the healthcare market by augmenting, rather than replacing, human expertise.
