It’s easy to remember an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but not so easy to recall what’s included in a “cardiology cocktail” of medications.

To help patients better understand and follow through on doctor’s orders, UPMC-backed startup Abridge officially launched an app Tuesday that allows individuals to record conversations with medical professionals and return to the doctor’s own words for guidance.

The app, which is free for patients, uses machine learning to produce a transcript of the appointment and pull out key parts of the conversation, like what tests the patient should get done and what medications the physician prescribed.

The platform adds an extra layer of context with features that define more than 400,000 medical terms, place a star next to the key action items and offer pricing information and coupons for prescriptions.

“We’re creating this index of sorts of important medical moments,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge and UPMC cardiologist.

Rather than forcing patients to “duct tape together an understanding ... we help people capture the details of their care so they can follow through on their doctor’s recommendations and have peace of mind,” he said.

Abridge announced Tuesday it had raised $15 million across a seed and Series A funding round led by New York City-based Union Square Ventures and UPMC.

In a year of pre-launch testing that started in July 2019, the startup found more than half of users forgot nearly half of a doctor’s appointment.

Whether because it is too difficult to keep up or because the information sparks too many emotions, Dr. Rao said most patients tend to forget the middle of the appointment, or the part where a care plan is discussed.

For example, if a patient schedules an appointment to discuss recent chest pain, the doctor could move through a list of next steps that range from prescribing that “cardiology cocktail” of medications to discussing a heart transplant to the possibility that the patient has already had a heart attack.

Most patients check out as soon as they hear the words heart attack, Dr. Rao said.

“It’s kind of amazing that as a system we expect people to remember — we use words like compliance and adherence — but it’s human nature to leave an appointment and forget all the details,” he said.

The app allows users to store conversations with notes about who the appointment was for and who they met with, as well as share conversations among other users.

The recordings are encrypted and Abridge says its technology is privacy protecting. It recommends users get permission from physicians before starting to record.

As patients continue to use the app, the machine learning models learn along with them, according to Sandeep Konam, co-founder and chief technology officer.

For example, the “machine learning loop” will recognize that if a patient has been prescribed aspirin, they could be working on something in the cardiology domain. That can help when transcribing future conversations as the technology learns what terms to flag as most important.

This type of machine learning is different from other voice-recognition technology, Mr. Konam said. While devices like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri work to understand what a user says to the machine, Abridge’s technology must transcribe a conversation between two users.

Abridge started out as a part of the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance, a collaboration between UPMC, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that seeks to apply machine learning to health care challenges.

So far, the company has partnered with UPMC and Boston Children’s Hospital, according to Dr. Rao.

At UPMC, the app is used to help facilitate and keep track of telehealth appointments that have become increasingly popular amid COVID-19. The medical system reported in May that telemedicine visits had increased 3,700%, going from 250 per day in March to 9,500 by the end of April.

For those patients still traveling to doctor’s appointments in person, Abridge launched a feature to allow users to record visits while also phoning in a family member or friend to ask questions and listen along. The feature was prompted by users’ requests as medical facilities limited the number of people inside amid COVID-19.

In his time as a physician, Dr. Rao said he was accustomed to patients bringing in a “scrapbook” of notes they had taken over the years to keep track of their care. Sometimes, patients would bring another person who was tasked with taking notes so the patient could be fully present.

The app is meant to help make that process easier so patients feel more confident advocating for themselves and following through on doctor’s recommendations.

“When consumers struggle, so do their doctors, so do their nurses,” Dr. Rao said. “People from all walks of life need someone who has their back during appointments.”

Source: https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2020/10/06/Abridge-UPMC-machine-learning-record-and-transcribe-doctors-visits/stories/202010060038