In part two of this series, we look at the convergence of AI and SaaS in the healthcare industry. Unlike fintech, healthcare has historically been slow to adopt software solutions, yet seemingly fast to test out AI tooling. Many theorize that this is because the healthcare industry is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the AI boom, with its huge amounts of structured and unstructured data available for the learning and training of specialized models needed to serve the vertical with deterministic probability.
With decades of experience investing in the software and SaaS foundations of the healthcare industry, the Oak HC/FT team brings a sharp lens to how companies are uniquely applying AI to address the sector’s ongoing challenges. Much like how we assessed companies like athenahealth or Cotiviti, we look to back companies that are building technology to address major structural challenges in healthcare, including:
- Access: Does this platform democratize a solution for previously underserved populations?
- Outcomes: Does this platform deliver measurable improvement over the status quo? Is that improvement meaningful enough?
- Cost: Does this platform remove unnecessary spend from the broader ecosystem?
- Speed: Does this platform improve time to resolution?
- Friction: Does this platform meaningfully reduce bottlenecks that create downstream cost or inefficiencies?
As we think more broadly about the potential for AI to transform healthcare, we use this same framework. When looking specifically at companies to back in the near-term, the question then becomes what sub-verticals within healthcare are most likely to see the most immediate benefits of the AIaaS wave?
We see the confluence of AI and software as well-positioned to impact three key areas across healthcare:
- The Business of Healthcare
- Perhaps the most obvious and least controversial place for software and AI to make an impact, front and back office tasks are primed for any sort of tech enhancements, due to their over reliance on manual processes and workflows.
- Augmentation of Clinical Processes
- The barrier to adoption here is the provider’s historical resistance to relinquishing control over how medicine is practiced – but the right tooling (and that most likely to win) – will augment clinical processes, not replace them.
- Enhancing and Modernizing Health Services Organizations
- As more traditional health services businesses look to improve efficiency, lower costs, and meet consumer expectations around experience, broader adoption of tech layers and AI is inevitable.
Looking across our portfolio, our software and AI investments map to these categories in the following ways:
Supporting the Business of Healthcare
Front and back office operational efficiencies are perhaps the most natural and obvious place for SaaS and AI applications. Hamstrung by manual processes and copious amounts of clicks, the workflows and functions that support the business of healthcare offer a ripe opportunity for innovation – and we’ve proudly invested in companies solving some of the largest pain points facing providers and payers.
Reveleer, an AI-powered software platform, is focused on leveraging software efficiencies to support payers with risk adjustment, quality improvement, medical record review, and member management. While payers are often faster to adopt software solutions to improve efficiencies, Reveleer is adding distinct value through its approach to data aggregation, structuring, and presentation. By collecting data from various sources and “cleaning” and standardizing it, the company is able to present a longitudinal health record for members that improves the line of sight payers have into member health – with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and lowering the total cost of care.
Stepful is using AI to change the way hospitals and health systems recruit for medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, and medical admins. The company’s AI-native learning platform is designed for working adults who are looking for entry-level positions but may not have the time or money available for traditional educational settings. This unique approach to recruiting and training is filling a gap in one of the most critical areas for U.S. hospitals – staffing. By tackling one of the most costly and widespread problems facing the U.S. healthcare system, Stepful’s tech approach to staffing is reducing costs on both sides of the equation and deeply improving efficiency for HR teams.
Syllable’s healthcare brand, Actium Health, offers enterprise-scale AI agents to support healthcare organizations with both inbound and outbound patient calls. By automating some of the customer service function, the company offers demonstrable ROI and cost savings – in addition to helping close support care gaps and achieve total cost of care goals.
Candid, a software business founded by ex-Palantir talent, provides autonomous revenue cycle automation for healthcare providers. Candid’s platform addresses the root cause of RCM inefficiency through modern data engineering and automation. Unlike traditional RCM companies which aim to make manual clean up work more efficient, Candid improves touchless claim rate and significantly increases the number of claims submitted correctly the first time, eliminating avoidable, manual work for billing teams.
Rialtic is an enterprise software company that supports healthcare systems with payment accuracy and reduces administrative burden. Within the system, payment accuracy, like revenue cycle management, drives immense cost and waste when not closely monitored. Without software solutions, the process is entirely manual – prone to error and slow turnaround times. Rialtic’s solution, increasingly bolstered by AI, focuses on UX and sound data infrastructure to differentiate itself in the market.
For Clinical Augmentation
When we think about companies innovating in the clinical decision making space, we focus on products that help individuals operate at the top of the license. Winners in this space will understand the historical reticence around tech adoption in the healthcare industry and be thoughtful about how to build trust over time. Within our portfolio, we have focused on partnering with companies that understand this nuance and build alongside clinicians – not separate and apart from them.
Regard, a clinical decision software company, uses AI to streamline documentation and help physicians diagnose medical conditions faster. By using its documentation offering as a wedge to build trust with doctors, the company has been able to expand product usage – by leaning into the insight that AI tools should be used to augment, not replace, the physician. Regard’s clinical support product mines clinical records quickly, leveraging pattern recognition and surface data to help doctors with decision-making. These suggestions do not replace a diagnosis and are structured to save physicians time – instead of replacing their clinical expertise.
Trovo offers AI-powered agents to providers and health systems to help them transform their clinical capabilities. Backed by a multidisciplinary care team, Trovo’s AI agents support physician practices across all their clinical functions – from PA to chart review to RCM management. By enabling practices to be able to address additional specialities, there is a clear ROI in clinical capacity expansion – and potential revenue sources.
Komodo is a software company that uses data science and AI to provide life science companies, providers, and payers with actionable insights derived from disparate data sources to optimize clinical outcomes and market access strategies. By offering a comprehensive view of patient encounters, the company's tooling allows customers to make better decisions about clinical development and care delivery. Its clear, measurable ROI is a direct driver of its growth and success over time.
To Enhance Traditional Services Businesses
Even with more traditional services businesses, we are seeing a shift in focus to software to improve operational efficiency and costs. While not traditional SaaS businesses, there are several companies across our portfolio that have applied a tech company mentality to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and breakthrough with customers and consumers.
Akido is using AI to reimagine how healthcare is delivered by arming medical assistants with AI-provided prompts to facilitate in-person visits for specialty and primary care practices. The AI platform guides the medical assistant through the questions a doctor typically asks during an initial visit – with scribing and auditory capabilities that allow for dynamic responses and conversation with the patient. With this tool, medical practices are able to increase the number of initial visits they can accept and increase the time physicians spend with high acuity patients.
CareBridge, which recently sold to Elevance for nearly $3B, took the traditional model for home and community-based care for people living with chronic or complex conditions and wrapped in a technology layer to help care coordinators with decision support – without the need of a physician – as well as electronic visit verification to help plans ensure individuals are receiving the visits and care that they need. This tech layer has allowed the business to solve some of the largest pain points payers experience with complex in-home care – and delivered measurable savings in the process.
Maven has reimagined women’s health care through a tech and software lens. Maven's award-winning digital programs provide clinical, emotional, and financial support on a single platform – spanning fertility and family building, maternity and newborn care, parenting and pediatrics, and menopause and midlife.
More recently, we’ve invested in services companies that are more tech-native – aimed at improving the clinical care or enrollment process by offering better user experiences that are aligned with everyday tech usage.
Galileo, founded by the team from One Medical, is a multi-specialty virtual care platform that offers visits around-the-clock by chat, video, phone, or in person. Built digitally-native and with the virtual-first patient in mind, the tech focuses on minimizing the need for referrals by linking specialists on the platform, behind-the-scenes, to create a seamless patient experience.
Imagine Pediatrics, a virtual-first pediatric medical care platform, uses machine learning to find children with special healthcare needs for their platform. Their innovative approach leverages technology to deliver care in a cost-effective manner and offers comprehensive support that includes medical, behavioral, and social services. The tech overlay is piped into the entirety of their business, from patient acquisition to care delivery.