How can artificial intelligence support healthcare? This is demonstrated by the Wrocław-based company Infermedica, which uses it to help patients, doctors and medical workers from around the world – including by automating medical interviews and improving patient-doctor communication.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made us look at the health service differently and we are actively looking for solutions that will help us improve its operation. Recent years have also seen the rapid development of technologies supporting medical care.
Healthcare systems around the world struggled before the outbreak of the pandemic. By 2030, up to 5 billion people may not have access to medical care at all – even basic care. Mostly because of the lack of staff. Healthcare costs are another challenge. According to the McKinsey report, in 2019 in the United States, administrative costs accounted for 25% of health care spending, amounting to nearly a trillion dollars.
These costs could be reduced by more than a quarter of a trillion ($ 265 billion) a year, including automating some of the administrative tasks that doctors and healthcare professionals today have to do manually.
Solutions that facilitate the work of doctors and medical workers thanks to technology are created, among others, by the Polish company Infermedica. It develops an artificial intelligence-based platform that supports primary healthcare. For several years, the company founded in Wrocław has been carrying out the mission of relieving health care systems and facilitating access to medical care for patients all over the world.
– The healthcare industry has never been so advanced and yet there are still so many patients who do not receive the right care at the right time. Infermedica is evolving to face this global challenge by focusing on cutting-edge technology to create patient-centric solutions, including reliable initial diagnosis that greatly improves flow and increases patient satisfaction. Piotr Orzechowski, founder and president of Infermedica.
It started with solutions to quickly check and analyze patients’ symptoms, suggesting the most likely causes and recommending next steps. Infermedica also makes it easier for doctors and consultants to make an initial diagnosis of patients and determine the seriousness of their situation. Currently, the Polish company is developing the Medical Guidance Platform, a platform that will help at all stages and in all processes of basic medical care – facilitating, among others, communication between doctors and patients and automating the creation of notes.
Before the visit, the patient fills in the form and answers a few questions about his health condition. Thanks to this, the doctor has basic information about a given patient and his ailments before the visit. This saves the time needed for the initial interview and documentation completion, the doctor can fully focus on the examination and conversation with the patient about the treatment.
The solutions are directed primarily to medical companies – including clinics, insurers and entire health care systems, but they also help patients directly. At the moment, Infermedica cooperates, among others with the technology company Microsoft, the insurance giant Allianz, the German clinic network Sana Kliniken, the American provider of medical services Optum and the Polish PZU Zdrowie. In total, the company cooperates with over 90 partners from 30 countries, and its tools have been used to perform over 10 million medical interviews around the world.
For your further development Infermedica has just obtained over PLN 120 million in financing from investors – One Peak fund and its existing investors – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Heal Capital funds, karma.vc and Polish Inovo Venture Partners. The funds will be used for the development of the company and new functions of the platform it offers.
One of the examples of the use of the platform is service voice chat. Together with the Polish startup Talkie.ai, Infermedica has developed a project of an initial medical interview in the form of a voice conversation. The patient then talks to the bot based on artificial intelligence. The bot recognizes and interprets the patient’s statements. In turn, the Infermedica diagnostic engine recognizes and registers symptoms, formulating in real time subsequent questions that the bot asks to ultimately refer the patient to the right specialist or recommend other actions.
Infermedica employs 180 people today, almost half of whom joined the company within several months from the previous investment round. The company plans to double the size of its team this year, employing, among others, engineers, developers and medical workers.
– The current development of Infermedica is due, among others, to over 60 hours of work of doctors who have created one of the most advanced knowledge bases on diseases, symptoms and risk factors. Thanks to the new funds, we will be able to continue to implement our vision and develop technology that increases the availability of basic medical care around the world – says Piotr Orzechowski, founder and CEO of Infermedica.
The Infermedica platform can help anyone, even before visiting a doctor. The company, in cooperation with MedTvoiLokony, provides each patient with a free tool that assesses what may be wrong with the patient through a short medical interview. The survey is safe and anonymous, it does not take more than three minutes.