Last year, a Vancouver startup entered the 2023 edition of NurseHack4Health Pitch-A-Thon, an annual event encouraging innovation in the healthcare.
“Going into it, all we had was an idea and a team,” recalls Sally Newton-Mason for Nursing Beat. “We faced many uncertainties: How do you create a business plan? What financial costs are involved? How do you craft a compelling pitch?”
Newton-Mason is the founder of Autochart, an artificiality intelligent platform that helps nursing professionals automate otherwise manual and laborious tasks.
During the NurseHack4Health event, Newton-Mason participated in workshops and met mentors. These efforts paid off duly: Autochart took home US$150,000 in seed funding form the Pitch-A-Thon.
As suggested by the name, Autochart helps nurses chart better. The startup was born out of the frustrations of doctors and nurses burdened by documentation and paperwork which Newton-Mason felt sucked the joy out of medicine, depriving patients of feeling connected to their provider.
The platform records conversations with patients; from there, it can summarize the interaction, or use the data for follow-up actions such as generating referrals or firing of an email of the meeting.
This allows nurses to “connect more warmly” with patients by being able to look them in the eyes, for example, rather than staring down at a chart capturing the contents of the conversation. In some cases, nurses stay extra hours to complete charting, another point of friction Autochart hopes to remove.
As far as security and compliance are concerned, Autochart has carefully considered both. Voice recordings never leave the company’s servers, Autochart claims, and are immediately deleted after transcription. On top of that, security audits and vulnerability assessments are conducted regularly “to maintain the highest standards of data protection.”
The startup has also “achieved comprehensive privacy compliance across Canada.”
“With support from our Canadian cybersecurity partner, Mirai Security, we’ve met the standards of Alberta PIPA, BC PIPA, Manitoba PHIA & FIPPA, New Brunswick PHIPAA, Newfoundland PHIA, Nova Scotia PHIA, Ontario PHIPA, Quebec Law 25, and federal PIPEDA,” the company states online. “These certifications reflect our commitment to secure, transparent data practices for healthcare AI across Canada.”
This month, the Canadian innovator will stand among other startups highlighted at this year’s Venture Showcase hosted by UBC. The annual event features teams from across UBC’s innovation pipeline, ranging from their “Ones-to-Watch” ventures who are at the outset of their journeys in incubation, to their “Ready-to-Raise” HATCH Venture Builder teams gaining traction in the accelerator stage.
Autochart.ai was founded in 2023 by Newton-Mason, who is currently pursuing her Masters in Nursing Science at the University of British Columbia.
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