Generative AI company Abridge announced a partnership with Northern California-based healthcare system Sutter Health, which will allow Abridge’s clinical documentation software to be available to Sutter clinicians. 

Abridge’s software is a generative AI for clinical conversation that reduces provider workload by automating note-taking. 

The software will be directly embedded into Sutter’s Epic EMR system. 

The aim of the Abridge-Sutter partnership is to reduce provider burnout while bettering patient experiences. 

"Clinicians often don’t have time to write detailed patient Instructions and summaries that reflect the details from their conversation that would most benefit the patient. This is a prime use case for generative AI, and it’s a privilege to team up with those from Sutter Health on this new patient-centered initiative," Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and founder of Abridge, said in a statement. 

THE LARGER TREND

Physicians spend a significant amount of time on administrative tasks such as writing notes, and administrative workload contributes to physician burnout, which is a large issue in the healthcare ecosystem.

Abridge launched in 2020 with $15 million in seed and Series A funding. This funding round was led by Union Square Ventures and UPMC, with additional funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Pillar and KdT Ventures. 

In 2022, the medical scribe company raised $12.5 million in Series A-1 funding with the same group of investors. Other investors in this round included AI expert Yoshua Bengio and Whistler Capital. 

The Pittsburgh-based company announced a $30 million dollar Series B led by Spark Capital. Spark has backed other genAI companies, including AI safety and research startup Anthropic.  

In February, Abridge announced a $150 million Series C investment powered by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures and CVS Health Ventures. Abridge also announced a partnership with Connecticut-based Yale New Haven Health system, which will use its generative AI solution in hospitals across the state. 

Last year, Sutter Health announced a new San Francisco-based innovation center for research and development as a build-out from the company’s Innovation Hatchery, which was founded in 2017 to advance technology in healthcare. 

The health system also acquired Santa Barbara Sansum Clinic, expanding its reach to California’s Central Coast, and, in March, it announced it had acquired five radiation oncology centers in Northern California.