Google Glass Startup Augmedix Secures $17 Million Strategic Investment from Five Leading Healthcare Systems

SAN FRANCISCO, April 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Augmedix, Inc., today announced that it has closed a $17 million strategic round of funding that includes investments from five leading healthcare systems from across the U.S, including: Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), TriHealth Inc. and one more. Together, these organizations have over 100,000 healthcare providers who treat millions of patients nationwide.

Today's strategic round will enable Augmedix and its investors to scale the Google Glass-powered service across health systems and private clinics nationwide. The service frees doctors from hours of mandated charting and documentation so they can get back to the work they love: taking care of patients.

Redmile Group led the strategic round, with participation from the founding institutional investors Emergence Capital and DCM Ventures. Augmedix has received $40 million in venture funding to date.

"We take our mission to transform healthcare very seriously, and are proud to align our goals and service with some of the most innovative healthcare systems in the country who share our passion," said Ian Shakil, CEO of Augmedix. "We believe that delivering quality, personalized patient care shouldn't be at odds with maintaining state-of-the-art electronic health records (EHR) -- both are important. With our wearable solution, healthcare organizations have the technology tools necessary to drive EHR efficiencies, enhance services and improve patient care, all at the same time."

"I have spent nearly a decade evaluating and investing in leading health IT companies," said Kevin Spain, general partner at Emergence Capital. "There are few technology solutions in healthcare that deliver both the level of customer delight and meaningful ROI that Augmedix provides. Today's announcement is further validation that Augmedix has created a groundbreaking solution to one of the biggest challenges in healthcare today."

Augmedix adoption benefits doctors and patients alike:

• Enhances Doctor-Patient Interaction - Increases patient satisfaction, reduces inefficiencies and keeps focus on patient needs -- not technology
• Improves EHR Quality - Delivers better, more accurate documentation and rigorous quality assurance
• Saves Doctors Time - Reduces charting time by three hours per day, enables doctors to see additional patients and/or reclaim saved time

"At Dignity Health, we are committed to developing partnerships that harness the great potential of technology and apply it in ways that help patients and providers make better day-to-day decisions about care," said Dr. Davin Lundquist, chief medical information officer, Dignity Health. "The use of Google Glass and Augmedix allows our doctors to spend more time with patients by eliminating the distraction of entering information into a patient's electronic medical record on the computer. This enables our healthcare providers to give more focused attention to our patients and results in a better patient experience."

"As we strive to create the high-quality, high-value healthcare experience our patients expect from Sutter Health, new technology tools and services allow us to innovate in ways that deliver a more efficient, affordable and personalized level of care," said Dr. Albert Chan, Sutter Health's vice president, chief of digital patient experience. "Wearable technology holds tremendous promise, especially for enhancing the office visit experience. We are committed to partnering with our patients, and value how our growing network of digital health innovators helps strengthen those patient-doctor relationships in new ways."

Augmedix now serves hundreds of primary care doctors, specialists and surgeons in nearly all 50 states who together see approximately 5000 patients a day. The company has grown to nearly 400 employees in offices worldwide.

"Today's investment by this unprecedented number of leading healthcare systems signals strong confidence in Augmedix and its disruptive mission to rehumanize the doctor-patient relationship," said Peter Moran, general partner of DCM Ventures.

About Augmedix
Augmedix is the first and largest Google Glass startup of any kind. Its service frees doctors from mandated charting, allowing them to focus instead on patient needs and quality care. Before entering the exam room, a doctor dons Google Glass and then proceeds to talk with patients, rather than burying their head in a computer screen. Forms, health history, lab orders, prescriptions and more are completed effortlessly using a remote scribe, verbal notes and commands. The service is HIPAA-compliant, works with all EHRs and increases doctor productivity by more than 30 percent. For more information, visit www.augmedix.com/.

About Sutter Health
Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, not-for-profit hospitals and other healthcare service providers share resources and expertise to advance health care quality and access. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California's top-performing, highest quality physician organizations as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Association. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient-safety technology. For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health network visit: Sutterhealth.org | facebook.com/sutterhealth | youtube.com/sutterhealth | twitter.com/sutterhealth.

About Dignity Health
Dignity Health, one of the nation's largest health care systems, is a 21-state network of 9,000 physicians, 59,000 employees, and more than 400 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, home health, and primary care clinics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality, and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved.  In FY15, Dignity Health provided $1.7 billion in charitable care and services. For more information, please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Catholic Health Initiatives
Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed in 1996 through the consolidation of four Catholic health systems, expresses its mission each day by creating and nurturing healthy communities in the hundreds of sites across the nation where it provides care. The nation's second-largest nonprofit health system, Englewood, Colorado-based CHI operates in 19 states and comprises 103 hospitals, including four academic health centers and major teaching hospitals as well as 30 critical-access facilities; community health-services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home-health agencies; living communities; and other facilities and services that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care. In fiscal year 2015, CHI provided almost $970 million in charity care and community benefit - an 8% increase over the previous year -- for programs and services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. Charity care and community benefit totaled more than $1.6 billion with the inclusion of the unpaid costs of Medicare. The health system, which generated operating revenues of $15.2 billion in fiscal year 2015, has total assets of approximately $23 billion. Learn more at www.catholichealthinitiatives.org

About TriHealth
TriHealth is hospitals, physicians and the community working together to help people live better. We provide clinical, educational, preventive and social programs through Bethesda North, Bethesda Butler, TriHealth Evendale, Good Samaritan and McCullough-Hyde hospitals and more than 130 other locations throughout Greater Cincinnati. This includes an ambulatory network, physician practices, research division, employer-based health services, hospice care, and fitness and health facilities. Learn more at trihealth.com, Facebook.com/TriHealth, @TriHealth on Twitter, Pinterest.com/TriHealth and at YouTube.com/TriHealth.

Media Contacts:
David Templeton
DBT Communications
[email protected]
(203) 530-0458

Carleen LeVasseur
DBT Communications
[email protected]
(408) 264-6767

SOURCE Augmedix, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.augmedix.com