In Latin America, doctors communicate with their patients mostly through WhatsApp, which is the most popular messaging platform in the region. As a result, physicians are frequently in situations where they receive a large number of messages that slow down their workflow and cause them to be exhausted. Patients want quick answers like they would get from consumer apps; however, this way of doing things mixes up administrative messages with clinical requests and professional follow-ups.
Caroline Merin, who was formerly a Uber Eats executive in Latin America and later became COO of Rappi, has seen this issue directly. She understood that the doctors were using a lot of their time to handle WhatsApp messages instead of giving attention to the patients. This insight prompted her to create a company whose mission was to fix the WhatsApp chaos by AI.
A New Startup: Leona Health
Merin established Leona Health, a startup that uses AI to help a doctor by connecting to their WhatsApp account. The software collects the messages that are coming in, ranks them according to the urgency level, and generates the replies. What is more, it provides a permit to a certain team member for example a nurse to write the reply if it is the case that a nurse handles the patient.
The startup’s solution is to give back to the doctors the time which they could have otherwise wasted communicating with patients. The AI of Leona segregates the messages and notifies the doctor with urgent or clinical important communication only, thereby lowering the cognitive load and leaving more time for actual patient care.
Funding and Expansion
Leona Health has recently completed a seed funding round totalling $14 million, the largest portion of which was contributed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Besides the investments from the Andreessen Horowitz, a16z, the fund-raising event witnessed the participation of General Catalyst, Accel, and a few prominent tech leaders like the CEOs of Maven Clinic, Nubank, and Rappi.
The company claims that its service is available for doctors in 14 Latin American countries and across 22 different medical specialties. This extensive deployment signals a significant level of interest that the medical professionals may have from those who are going through the same problems of WhatsApp overload.
What the Technology Does
Patients can still message doctors via WhatsApp just like they have always done. Leona’s platform catches these texts and uses AI to deal with them in an ordered way. With the help of prioritization, doctors’ attention is directed to urgent health needs rather than administrative queries. Also, the platform intends to introduce a new feature that will manage conversations about scheduling and intake without human intervention.
The ultimate thing is not to take the human clinicians out but to make the communication between the patient and doctor more manageable through technology. By completing the routine tasks, the system gives the physicians the opportunity to concentrate more on clinical decisions and the execution of their care in person.
Why It Matters
In many cases, healthcare communication technologies are less advanced in terms of user experience compared to consumer apps. Leona Health’s method is an indication that doctors are not going to stop using WhatsApp; however, it is the way communication is managed that transforms into a system that is logical for clinical work.
The fresh capital will be instrumental in platform enhancement and geographical expansion. Investors see the promise of AI-based solutions that facilitate workflow in the real world, particularly in regions where there is less implementation of electronic health systems.
