The healthcare-focused artificial intelligence startup Hippocratic AI Inc. said today it has closed on a $141 million Series B funding round that brings its total amount raised to over $278 million.

The round was led by Kleiner Perkins, a venture capitalist firm that previously backed Google LLC and Amazon.com Inc during their early days, and it brings Hippocratic AI’s valuation to over $1.64 billion. Others, including A16z, General Catalyst, Premji, NVIDIA, SV Angel, Universal Health Services and WellSpan Health, also participated in the round.

The startup was co-founded by its Chief Executive Officer Munjal Shah and a group of physicians, hospital administrators, healthcare professionals and AI researchers from organizations including El Camino Health LLC, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Microsoft Corp., Google and Nvidia Corp.

Hippocratic AI chose its name after the oath taken by doctors, who must vow to do no harm to their patients, and it’s focused on ensuring AI can be deployed safely and responsibly within healthcare industry scenarios, so it can benefit clinicians and hospital administrators as they strive to improve patient outcomes.

The startup was initially focused on creating generative AI chatbots to support clinicians and other healthcare professionals, but has since switched its focus to patients themselves. Its most advanced models take advantage of the latest developments in AI agents, which are a form of AI that can perform more complex tasks while working unsupervised, and the round coincides with today’s launch of its Healthcare AI Agent App Store.

The launch is a bold step forward in healthcare innovation, giving clinicians the opportunity to participate in the design of AI agents that can address various aspects of patient care. It says clinicians can create an AI agent prototype that specializes in their area of focus in less than 30 minutes, and around three-to-four hours to develop one that can be tested. Crucially, any agent created using its platform will undergo extensive safety training by both the creator and Hippocratic AI’s own staff. Every clinician will have access to a dashboard to track their AI agent’s performance and use and receive feedback for further development.

Once the AI agent is up and running, the clinicians who created it will be able to claim a share of the revenue it generates from the startup’s customers.

According to the startup, the objective of these AI agents is to try and solve the massive shortage of trained nurses, social workers and nutritionists in the healthcare industry, both in the U.S. and globally. For instance, one of its AI agents is specialized in chronic care management, medication checks and post-discharge follow-up regarding specific conditions such as kidney failure and congestive heart failure.

Hippocratic AI said it’s necessary to have clinicians onboard because they have, over the course of their careers, developed deep expertise in their respective fields, as well as the practical insights to help cure specific medical conditions and the clinical workflows involved. By incorporating this wisdom into its AI agents, it’s making them safer and improving patient outcomes, it said.

“Since the founding of Hippocratic AI, we have believed that the best way to build safe and effective AI is through close collaboration with those delivering care,” Shah said.

Through the Hippocratic AI Agent App Store, healthcare organizations and hospitals will be able to access a range of specialized AI agents for different aspects of medical care. It’s launching with more than 300 AI agents focused on 25 specialities.

The startup said its AI Agent creators include Dr. Vanessa Dorismond MD, MA, MAS, a distinguished obstetrician and gynecologist at El Camino Women’s Medical Group and Teal Health, who helped to create an AI agent that’s focused on cervical cancer check-ins and enhancing patient education.

Others include Kacie Spencer, DNP, RN, the Chief Nursing Officer at Adtalem Global Education Inc., who has more than 20 years of experience in emergency nursing and clinical education. Her AI agent is focused on patient education for the proper installation of child car seats. Meanwhile, Kristina Dulaney, RN, PMH-C, the founder of Cherished Mom, an organization dedicated to solving maternal mental health challenges, helped to create an AI agent that’s focused on helping new mothers navigate such problems with postpartum mental health assessments and depression screening.

The startup has also created other AI agents for tasks like pre- and post-surgery wound care, extreme heat wave preparation, home health checks, diabetes screening and education, and many more besides.

In order to ensure its AI agents can do their jobs safely, Hippocratic AI says it only works with licensed clinicians to develop them, taking steps to verify their qualifications and experience first. Once clinicians have built their agents, they’ll be submitted to the startup for an initial round of testing, followed by more extensive evaluations and safety assessments by an extensive network of more than 6,000 nurses and 300 doctors, who will confirm that it passes all required safety tests. Only then are they deployed and made available to serve patients.

Shah said the last nine months since the company’s previous $50 million funding round have seen it make tremendous progress. During that time, it has received its first U.S. patents, fully evaluated and verified the safety of its first AI healthcare agents, and signed contracts with 23 health systems, payors and pharma clients.

“This round of financing will accelerate the development and deployment of the Hippocratic generative AI-driven super staffing and continue our quest to make healthcare abundance a reality,” he promised.

Hippocratic AI’s early customers include Arkos Health Inc., Belong Health Inc., Cincinnati Children’s, Fraser Health Authority (Canada), GuideHealth, Honor Health, Deca Dental Management, LLC, OhioHealth, WellSpan Health and other well-known healthcare systems and hospitals.

Images: Hippocratic AI