Nabla, a company headquartered in Paris, recently disclosed a successful Series B funding round of $24 million, spearheaded by Cathay Innovation and supported by ZEBOX Ventures, the commercial VC fund of CMACGM. This financial milestone closely follows Nabla’s establishment of a significant partnership with Permanente Medical Group, an affiliate of a prominent healthcare conglomerate in the United States.
With this latest funding injection, Nabla has reportedly achieved a valuation of $180 million, paving the way for potential additional investments from American financial backers in the near future.
Nabla has been dedicated to developing an AI navigator tailored for physicians and other healthcare professionals. This innovative tool acts as a virtual assistant, quietly observing interactions, collecting data, and autonomously generating medical reports on behalf of the user.
The company was founded by Martin Raison, Delphine Groll, and Alexandre Lebrun. Lebrun, Nabla’s CEO, previously held the same position at Wit, an AI assistant company acquired by Facebook, where he later assumed the role of director at Facebook’s FAIR AI research lab.
During a recent live demonstration I attended, Nabla showcased its technology featuring an actual physician interacting with a simulated individual exhibiting symptoms of back pain. The seamless integration of Nabla’s interface allows healthcare providers to engage in conversations without the distraction of traditional computer input methods.
In addition to facilitating physical assessments, Nabla’s consultations encompass detailed discussions on patients’ medical history and reasons for their visit, culminating in personalized recommendations and prescriptions.
By leveraging speech-to-text technology, Nabla efficiently converts dialogues into written records, accommodating both in-person consultations and virtual healthcare visits.
Following the consultation, the physician triggers the data processing phase, prompting Nabla to extract vital information such as health metrics, medication details, and diagnoses using a sophisticated language model trained on healthcare data and related conversations.
Subsequently, Nabla swiftly compiles a comprehensive health report summarizing the discussion, treatment plans, and follow-up instructions, all tailored to meet the specific needs of healthcare providers. Users can customize report structures, including options to adhere to standard formats like the SOAP note pattern.
The demonstration I witnessed underscored Nabla’s remarkable efficacy in generating accurate records and insightful reports, even under constrained conditions, reinforcing the platform’s value in clinical settings.
Nabla Copilot, the company’s flagship product, aims not to replace healthcare professionals but to streamline administrative tasks, allowing physicians to devote more time and attention to patient care.
According to Alexandre Lebrun, co-founder and CEO of Nabla, the company’s vision aligns with supporting doctors rather than supplanting them, emphasizing the importance of human expertise in healthcare decision-making.
Nabla envisions a future where AI technology enhances medical practices, enabling healthcare providers to focus on compassionate care, surgical precision, and critical decision-making, while automation handles routine tasks efficiently.
Despite its French origins, Nabla has gained significant traction in the United States through collaborations with institutions like Permanente Medical Group, demonstrating real-world adoption and utility among thousands of healthcare professionals.
Nabla’s commitment to data privacy is evident in its approach to information handling, prioritizing real-time transcription over long-term data storage. The platform employs a customized speech-to-text API to transcribe discussions instantly, with transcripts stored temporarily and securely before integration into existing electronic health record systems.
By pseudonymizing patient data and utilizing advanced language models like GPT-3 and Llama2, Nabla ensures data security and privacy while delivering valuable insights to healthcare providers. The platform’s future roadmap includes leveraging specialized models for enhanced data processing and expanding its language capabilities to support diverse medical contexts.
In conclusion, Nabla’s innovative approach to AI-assisted healthcare documentation reflects a harmonious blend of technology and human expertise, driving efficiency and quality in modern medical practices.
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