Pittsburgh-based Abridge, a startup building AI solutions for clinical documentation, has secured $30 million in Series B financing. The funding round saw participation from prominent healthcare organizations and venture capital firms, including CVS Health Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Lifepoint Health, Mayo Clinic, and Spark Capital.
The investment will support Abridge’s rapid expansion as health systems nationwide adopt its technology to reduce clinician burnout and enhance patient care. Abridge’s software leverages proprietary natural language processing models to automatically generate clinical note drafts from patient-provider conversations in real time.
In recent implementations, over 90% of clinical notes were produced solely by Abridge's AI, requiring minimal editing by clinicians. This allows doctors to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focused on patients.
The solution also provides transparency into the AI, enabling clinicians to quickly validate recommendations against the original conversation data. This focus on explainability helps build provider trust in the technology.
Abridge co-founder and CEO Dr. Shiv Rao emphasized the significance of having renowned institutions contribute to the latest funding round. "The investment and support of these iconic institutions is a game-changer for Abridge, dramatically accelerating what we can do to solve a critical issue facing every health system," he said.
The financing comes on the heels of Abridge's selection as the first official integration "Pal" within Epic's platform. This makes Abridge's documentation solution readily available for rapid deployment across Epic's extensive customer base of leading health systems.
Initial Epic clients utilizing Abridge include The University of Kansas Health System, UPMC, and Emory Healthcare. The integration significantly expands Abridge's reach and impact on clinical workflows.
"We are encouraged by the enthusiasm of thousands of clinicians who use Abridge every day and we look forward to collaborating with this talented team," noted Vijay Patel of CVS Health Ventures.
With the new capital injection, Abridge is primed to scale nationwide and continue enhancing its AI to provide even greater value to healthcare organizations. Streamlining clinical documentation remains a high priority for health systems seeking efficiency gains and relief for overburdened clinicians.