Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit integrated health system, has joined many other health systems across the country working with vendor Abridge’s AI-powered assisted clinical documentation tool. The health system’s venture capital arm is also one of the company’s investors.
Pittsburgh-based Abridge’s $30 million Series B funding round was led by Spark Capital. The round also included existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as CVS Health Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Lifepoint Health, Mayo Clinic, SCAN Group, UC Investments (University of California) and the American College of Cardiology. Last year, the company said the investment would support large-scale health system deployment and accelerate product advancements.
The tool is now available to physicians and other clinicians at Kaiser Permanente’s 40 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices across eight states and the District of Columbia. Powered by Abridge’s ambient listening technology, the solution helps physicians and other clinicians securely capture clinical notes during patient visits and helps them focus on talking to patients rather than on administrative or documentation tasks.
With the launch of Abridge, Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente joins a growing list of large health system customers, including UVM Health Network in Vermont, UChicago Medicine, Sutter Health, Yale New Haven Health System, UCI Health, Emory Healthcare, The University of Kansas Health System and UPMC.
“Over the past year, Kaiser Permanente has worked with Abridge on the largest deployment to date of the safe and effective use of environmental listening technology in the United States,” Desiree Gandrup-Dupre, senior vice president of Healthcare Delivery Technology Services at Kaiser Permanente, said in a statement. “At Kaiser Permanente, we have a long track record of successfully deploying proven technologies at scale, while continuing to deliver care and services when, how and where our patients need it.”
By using the Assisted Clinical Documentation tool, Kaiser Permanente physicians and clinicians can spend more time understanding their patients’ needs and actively engaging them in healthcare decisions. The Assisted Clinical Documentation tool uses AI to securely summarize relevant medical information from natural, spoken conversations. Kaiser Permanente implemented the tool after conducting testing and quality control, taking into account patient privacy and preferences. The tool requires patient consent, and physicians and clinicians will review clinical notes before entering them into the patient’s medical record.
“Our physicians strive to make every patient interaction matter and work to build rapport with our members so they know they are understood and heard,” Ramin Davidoff, MD, executive medical director and chairman of the board of directors for Southern California Permanente Medical Group, said in a statement. “By reducing administrative tasks, we are making it easier for our physicians to focus on patients and fostering an environment where they can provide effective communication and transparency while meeting the individual needs of each patient who comes to them for care. Creating a space for connection between patient and physician is what inspired us to implement this technology. And we hope those connections and improved efficiency will help make the practice of medicine sustainable for many physicians.”
