Erez Druk, co-founder and CEO of Freed.
Courtesy: Release
For Erez Druk, he spent nearly four years in FacebookLiterally, building health care startups has become a labor of love.
Druk’s wife, Dr. Gabi Meckler, works in a community clinic in Northern California, where she cares about children and adults and delivers babies at local hospitals. When not with the patient, Meckler is flooded with paperwork, constantly updating medical records and related documents.
“I was attracted to the clinician,” Drucker said in an interview. “One day, like, ‘Hey, Gaby, what should we build for you?’ She said, “Take notes for me.” ”
Druk started working as a software engineer at Facebook in 2013 until he launched his previous startup Urbanleap in 2017. Closed UrbanleapThe company focused on public procurement software in 2022 and released the following year with Andrey Bannikov, who spent the first decade on Facebook.
Freed provides AI scribes that can automate the clinical record process in real time because doctors agree to record access with patients. Druk said the company sold the technology directly to individual clinicians, usually small or independent practices, at $99 per month, and began working with the entire practice.
Freed announced a $30 million financing led by Sedeoia Capital, a company that raised its first institutional capital. The company has also announced new features such as custom note formats, prefabricated and professional templates. Freed said it plans to build other features, such as automated coding and other billing cycle features.
according to October research from Google cloud. A study last year concluded that administrative tasks are a major cause of burnout, as 64% of doctors feel overwhelmed by the paperwork.
The physician is responsible for completing paperwork in the mountains, including the tedious and time-consuming process of clinical notes, which contain detailed records of the patient’s visit.
Druk wants to automate the process as much as possible so that doctors can spend more time with patients, even with their families.
He said that as of late February, 17,000 clinicians around the world used about 2 million people to visit each month.
“It’s just started to spread,” Drucker said. “It really exceeded my craziest expectations.”
Crowded fields
Drucker is not the only one who sees the opportunity.
In recent years, the AI copying market has exploded as health systems have been searching for tools that can help solve administrative burnout. Freed is working with tech giants like Microsoftand startups like Abridge and Suki that have developed similar tools.
Sequoia partner Josephine Chen said the crowded market reflects the seriousness of the problem. Freed’s transcription tool gained attention by focusing on smaller independent offices, she said.
“The Freed approach is unique because most of the companies we see serve different markets,” Chen said.
Natalie Desseyn said the release was the reason why she still practiced in psychiatry for nurses.
Desseyn saw about 250 patients through an exercise in Virginia called cloud rupture therapy. She has been using Freed for about two years and has paid for it personally. Without it, she said, if anything, she wouldn’t be able to see a patient of this size.
“I’m not writing here, so people really hear it,” Daisy said. “I can’t tell you that it actually changed my life.”
Desseyn tried some other AI transcription tools, but she said she always came back to release. Its model is better at staying precise, sticking to facts and avoiding irrelevant opinions in notes, she said.
Druk’s wife Meckler said the document was the thing she disliked the least when practicing medicine. When she first used it, Freed felt like “magic”.
Meckler used to say she would spend about half of her time writing notes. She said that the personal tasks that used to take her about 15 minutes to complete will now be close to two.
“I expect great things from Erez, but I’m still shocked,” Meckler said.
Drucker said he and his team of 50 are committed to building the business and its portfolio this year. He said he is still committed to creating a platform that clinicians and his wife love to use.
“It’s really the most fulfilling and important work I’ve ever done, maybe I’ll do it,” he said.
watch: Texas measles outbreaks can take a long time to control
