Hippocratic AI, a startup founded by Munjal Shah in 2023, focuses on integrating generative artificial intelligence into nondiagnostic healthcare applications. The company recently closed a $53 million Series A funding round, raising its valuation to $500 million and total funding to $120 million. The funds are intended to accelerate product development and support Phase 3 testing of its healthcare large language model (LLM). Hippocratic AI aims to address the global shortage of healthcare professionals by utilizing AI agents for patient-facing tasks such as navigation, chronic care nursing, and dietitian advice. The company’s technology is based on the Polaris architecture, a multiagent LLM system optimized for real-time healthcare conversations, ensuring nuanced and patient-friendly interactions.
The training process for Hippocratic AI’s agents includes evidence-based research and simulated conversations with input from U.S.-licensed nurses and patient actors. Further training involves AI-generated conversations reviewed by healthcare professionals for continuous improvement. The company has partnered with Nvidia to enhance the conversational speed and fluidity of its agents. Testing has shown that Hippocratic AI’s LLMs can outperform human medical professionals in several nondiagnostic tasks. Despite the promising results, human nurses are still considered slightly more effective overall. Hippocratic AI’s focus on safety, strategic partnerships, and generative AI integration positions it as a significant player in the evolving healthcare AI space.
