When Munjal Shah graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of San Diego, he had an inkling of what he wanted to do with his future. When Shah acquired his Master’s in Computer science with a specialization in AI from Stanford University, that vision became even more apparent.
A serial entrepreneur with 100MM+ Medicare Advantage business on his resume, Shah has spent most of his professional life working as a startup advisor, investor, and consummate entrepreneur.
Shah says of his early years in the field, “I spearheaded a few different companies, including a healthcare startup that leveraged AI to analyze health records, a machine learning company acquired by Google, and a marketplace management, research, and analytics company that sold to Alibaba.”
Addressing Healthcare Challenges Through AI
During a conventional run in 2010, Munjal Shah began to experience chest pains. He ended up in an experience that would change his entire worldview. Shah says, “This motivated me to merge my newfound passion for healthcare with my entrepreneurial expertise.”
Now, the founder of Hippocratic AI, Munjal Shah, hopes to address what he sees as a major crisis: a worldwide shortage of healthcare workers. According to a report published by the World Health Organization, there may be a shortfall of up to 15 million healthcare workers on a global level by 2030.
Shah says, “We have the technology to deliver affordable healthcare, especially to underserved communities and geographies. This is where I see Hippocratic AI coming in.”
Core Offerings With Hippocratic AI
The goal of Hippocratic AI is to offer patients access to affordable healthcare services that they need to stay healthy and safe today and in the future. Shah stated, “Hippocratic AI will be used for non-diagnostic patient-facing applications.”
Shah would explain that Hippocratic AI could define benefits, offer instructions, risk assessments, and other extensive forms of communication. The AI will be extensively trained to revolutionize patient interactions, incorporating AI to allow for a deeper connection between patient and caregiver.
Funding For Hippocratic AI
With AI at the forefront of many of tech’s latest innovations, finding funding was easy for the team behind Hippocratic AI. Munjal Shah has overseen the team’s acquisition of more than $50 million in all-equity seeding led by General Catalyst and a16z.
Shah stated of the latest funding round, “This has been the first investment in the company, and we are going to be using this funding to invest heavily in talent, computing, data, and partnerships.”
Throughout the funding process, Shah and his team have focused on three core areas: certification, bedside manner, and reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF).
Shah stated, “Focusing on these three main parameters ensured that we were able to set ourselves up for success and give us the best possible chance to reach our goal.”