The Boston-based firm Atalan Tech secured $2.5 million in seed investment to predict physician fatigue and turnover using AI.
The timing of the Atalan Tech fundraising round is crucial because it coincides with an increase in doctor burnout in the post-pandemic era, which has caused personnel shortages and turnover in the healthcare sector.
Excelerate Health Ventures and OCA Ventures shared leadership of the investment round. A number of angel investors also took part in this fundraising project. The pre-money valuation of Atalan Tech is $3 million, according to company CEO Tiffany Chan, per Axios.
The funding will go toward advancing research and development projects, growing the company's science staff, and stepping up sales and marketing initiatives.
Helping Healthcare Professionals Address Burnout
The distinctive platform from Atalan Tech is intended to forecast and reduce burnout risks in healthcare environments. The platform analyzes over 100 factors associated with burnout and turnover using machine learning models to pull data from electronic health records (EHRs) and human resources information systems. This thorough research aids in the identification of important risk variables, including workplace control, flexibility, and obstacles to patient-facing workflow.
When risk factors are detected, Atalan Tech creates specialized treatments and solutions to deal with these problems. The business also assesses the efficacy and return on investment (ROI) of these efforts.
Atalan Tech now has collaborations with eight different health systems, but Chan has stated that she wants to increase that number to 15 by the end of the following year.
Doctor Burnout in The US: A Grave Concern
In the US healthcare system, doctor burnout is a serious problem, with approximately 63% of doctors expressing symptoms including emotional tiredness and depersonalization on a weekly basis, according to the American Medical Association. Moreover, mistakes, suicidal thoughts, greater rates of alcohol addiction, and impaired patient care are all associated with burnout among doctors.
Burnout is typically caused by healthcare system inefficiencies, administrative costs, and growing regulatory and technological expectations. A 2019 National Academy of Medicine study highlighted the discrepancy between physicians' ideals and the healthcare industry's incentivization structure as a major cause of burnout.
Dr. Tait Shanafelt, an oncologist at Stanford University, who is a contributor to the study, emphasized the effect of paperwork and ineffective procedures on physicians' job satisfaction, adding that under such circumstances, once-positive features of their profession might become tainted.
"We cared about quality of patients' experience, building relationships with them, and then there were all these things we got paid for," the doctor said as quoted by The New York Times.
