A Québec healthtech startup thinks its AI assistant can help healthcare providers make better (and less costly) decisions about whether a patient needs medical imaging or interventions.
The news: Québec City-based Bia Health announced on Wednesday that it has raised $2.15 million CAD to bring its Bia Assistant into the hands of more clinicians, helping them decide on diagnostic plans. Montréal-based Finalta Capital provided $1.4 million in debt, while Anges Québec led the equity portion and Desjardins participated through its Startup en résidence program.
From the source: “Bia aims to reduce unnecessary and low-value care, which represents an estimated 30 percent of healthcare in Canada, by helping clinicians make the most appropriate decision for each patient,” Bia Health CEO and co-founder Anne-Sophie Paquet wrote to BetaKit in an email. “This can mean avoiding unnecessary imaging, referrals, investigations, or interventions while also helping clinicians provide appropriate self-care when escalation is not needed.”
The context: Paquet, who is a physiotherapist, told BetaKit in an email that she co-founded Bia in 2016 with other healthcare professionals as a tool to make clinical knowledge more accessible to healthcare professionals by building e-learning modules and a library of medical content. But over time, Paquet said they realized that “the bigger problem was not access to evidence, but helping clinicians apply it at the point of care.” Paquet added that the business isn’t starting from scratch; rather, it’s an established enterprise bringing in $500,000 in annual recurring revenue, with a new product that it hopes to scale with this new funding.
Bia’s AI assistant aims to help healthcare professionals determine diagnoses based on a library of medical and scientific knowledge. By using it, the company hopes to cut down on unnecessary medical tests—those that the company says aren’t in line with evidence-based guidelines based on the patient’s symptoms or that aren’t “likely” to improve patient outcomes. The company said that Bia isn’t meant to replace clinical judgment, just to provide “evidence-based recommendations.”
Bia claims that its tech, if widely adopted across primary care, could help Québec save up to $100 million a year on healthcare. The company has signed an agreement with Santé Québec in the Capitale-Nationale – Universitaire region for a six-month test of its tech with 100 clinicians who are focused on musculoskeletal care. Paquet said the company is starting with this care category, which covers conditions like osteoarthritis and bone fractures, to create a “strong foothold” in the market before expanding to other kinds of diagnostic assistance.
Final thought: Though it’s starting with its home province, the company plans to target the much larger US market. A study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology found that unnecessary medical imaging costs the US medical system about $12 billion USD ($17 billion CAD) annually. In addition to cost strains, ordering unnecessary diagnostic tests can put an already-strained workforce under more pressure.
With files from Josh Scott.