Heidi: the AI scribe shaking up NZ healthcare
About this episode
This episode features an interview with Yu Liu, co-founder of Heidi Health, discussing the impact of AI on healthcare productivity in New Zealand.
Australian startup Heidi Health has become one of the most visible examples of AI actually shifting the dial on healthcare productivity – and New Zealand is at the forefront of that story. In this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, I talk to Heidi co‑founder Yu Liu about the company’s journey from student training tool to AI “care partner” for clinicians, and its audacious goal of doubling global healthcare capacity. Heidi didn’t start life in the emergency department. Yu and his co‑founders first built Oscar, a chatbot that helped medical students practise exam skills – essentially simulated patients for training bedside manner and clinical questioning. Oscar was useful, but the startup team struggled to find students willing to pay for it. In 2019, Liu and his co-founders, Dr Tom Kelly and Waleed Mussa, pivoted to tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in healthcare – the hours clinicians lose every day to documentation and administration. Widespread use in emergency departments That created Heidi Scribe, an ambient AI scribe that sits in on consultations, listening to the conversation and producing high‑quality…
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