Augmedix, which has harnessed Google Glass technology to develop tools to improve physician workflow and productivity, has secured a $23 million round of funding from new investors McKesson Ventures, OrbiMed and others.
The main Augmedix product is remote scribe technology, enabled by Google Glass, that aims to help physicians manage the voluminous charting and documentation required, ideally freeing them to see more patients, with a better patient relationship.
Augmedix has landed more than $60 million in VC funds since its founding in 2012. In addition to McKesson Ventures and OrbiMed, this funding round included its existing institutional investors, Redmile Group, Emergence Capital and DCM Ventures.
[Also: McKesson launches venture capital fund]
Several of its health system customers – including Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health, Sutter Health and TriHealth – are also investors in Augmedix.
"Augmedix has brought together an impressive coalition of the nation's leading health systems as its customers, and their physicians and health system executives have a strong passion for Augmedix," said Steven Yecies, Venture Partner at OrbiMed. "Across the country, Augmedix has delivered consistent and considerable improvements to physician productivity and satisfaction for the health systems they serve."
Using Augmedix together with Google Glass, docs are able to access patients' medical history and document the patient visit without having to interact with a computer: The chart note is created in real-time by remote scribes based in secure, HIPAA-compliant facilities.
Physicians can then review the note and a summary of the visit can be provided to the patient with care instructions.
[Also: Sutter, Dignity Health, others give Google Glass startup Augmedix $17 million in funding]
Augmedix says it has pioneered the largest remote scribe service in the world, building out a secure enterprise platform that's been deployed at some of the biggest health systems in the U.S. The scribe service complements other services aimed at helping with staffing, quality assurance, network and technical support, analytics and business process improvement.
"Augmedix is uniquely able to improve doctors' quality of life by allowing them to concentrate on their patients rather than on data entry," said Tom Rodgers, managing director of McKesson Ventures. "This makes their technology invaluable for settings like our U.S. Oncology clinics. We are excited to bring McKesson's experience and ubiquitous market presence to help them scale to doctors across the country in the coming few years."
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