In a significant milestone, Hippocratic AI, Munjal Shah brainchild, has secured $53 million in a Series A funding round, propelling the company to a remarkable $500 million valuation. This latest investment, led by Premji Invest and General Catalyst, with participation from SV Angel, Memorial Hermann Health System, and existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, Cincinnati Children’s, WellSpan Health, and Universal Health Services, brings Hippocratic AI’s total funding to an impressive $120 million.
Founded in 2023 by Munjal Shah, Hippocratic AI is a pioneering startup dedicated to harnessing the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to transform non-diagnostic healthcare applications. True to its name, the company’s mission is rooted in the Hippocratic oath, with a steadfast commitment to the principle of “Do No Harm.”
At the core of Hippocratic AI’s endeavors lies developing a “constellation” of large language models (LLMs) designed to provide patient-facing services such as navigation, chronic care nursing, and dietitian advice. Powered by the Polaris architecture, a cutting-edge multiagent LLM system optimized for real-time healthcare conversations, Munjal Shah’s vision is to create empathetic AI agents capable of engaging in natural, supportive dialogue with patients while adhering to the highest standards of medical professionalism.
The training process for these AI agents is meticulous, involving evidence-based research, simulated conversations with licensed nurses and patient actors, and iterative refinement through AI-generated interactions reviewed by healthcare professionals. This rigorous approach aims to equip the LLMs with medical knowledge and the ability to communicate effectively and empathetically with patients.
Munjal Shah, the driving force behind Hippocratic AI, emphasizes the company’s unwavering commitment to safety as a core value. “When we started the company, we prioritized safety as our top value,” he states. “This has been our guiding principle since the company’s founding. Our focus on safety testing our product in multiple phases and transparent publication of the results for everyone to see is the next down payment in this safety-first journey.”
The latest funding round will accelerate Hippocratic AI’s product development and enable the company to conduct Phase 3 of testing for its healthcare LLMs. This phase mandates the involvement of 5,000 licensed nurses, 500 licensed physicians, and healthcare system collaborators to rigorously assess the AI agents’ performance across various dimensions, including medical safety, conversational appropriateness, and empathy.
Munjal Shah’s commitment to safety is unwavering, as evidenced by his statement: “We’re going to sit here until it’s safe, as determined by clinicians.”
Hippocratic AI’s internal research has yielded promising results, with its LLMs demonstrating superior performance compared to human medical professionals and other LLMs in several non-diagnostic tasks. For instance, the AI delivered correct medical advice 96.79% of the time, outperforming human nurses, who scored 81.16%. Additionally, the LLMs excelled in recognizing the impact of medications on lab tests, identifying condition-specific disallowed over-the-counter drugs, and detecting toxic OTC dosages, surpassing the capabilities of human nurses and LLMs like Google’s Llama 2 and OpenAI’s GPT-4.
While human nurses were still considered slightly more effective overall, Munjal Shah’s Hippocratic AI has demonstrated remarkable progress in cultivating empathetic AI agents that can build trust and rapport with patients, creating opportunities for education and personalized care.
As AI continues to revolutionize the healthcare landscape, Munjal Shah’s Hippocratic AI stands at the forefront, adopting a cautious yet optimistic approach to integrating generative AI into non-diagnostic healthcare applications. With strategic partnerships, a clear vision, and an unwavering commitment to safety, Hippocratic AI is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare innovation.
