Ex-Doctor Quit Medicine, Built an AI Startup Now Valued at Over $460 Million

In 2017, Thomas Kelly graduated from medical school and became a doctor at last—the occupation he had envisioned as a child and worked towards throughout his life. Now built an AI startup. However, later, when he began to practise, Kelly noticed that the job was not as he imagined.

My experience as a physician was very limited. I have no more than 10 minutes with the patient, CNBC Make It. I was getting 100 patients a day and [was] always in a hurry and always coordinating 700 tests and a million things.

“In a perfect world … I would have as much time with [patients] as they would like to have. I would come to know their family, I would remember them so well, and then I would visit them frequently, he said. The truth, though, is that, similar to most other clinicians, he experienced immense burnout in the profession.

Kelly was inspired to solve this issue and came up with an AI tool that aids in transcribing medical visits, creating clinical notes, and so forth, with the idea of reducing the burden on clinicians and doctors.

At this point, the 33-year-old is the co-founder and CEO of Heidi, an AI medical scribe. In October, the company declared its Series B of $65 million, which values the business at $465 billion.

Early exploration

Kelly grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and was inspired to enter the field of medicine by his primary care doctor.

I simply liked my primary care physician… He was, as though, the highest attribute of applying your brain and knowledge towards good, said Kelly. “He always had an amazing plan. He was very friendly, a fantastic bedside man, yet, just most incredibly sharp and intelligent always.

That experience remained with him. In university, he had to venture in other areas like maths and computer science and ended up choosing the career of becoming a doctor. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2013 and proceeded to the medical school.

During his school enrolment in medicine, Kelly engaged in a side hustle during which he created educational video content on YouTube and tutored students seeking to join the field of medicine.

Surprisingly, videos started to gain a following among students to the point that he was unable to manage them initially, and what initially started as a hobby gradually transformed into a small business. In order to properly manage his time when running his tutoring business, Kelly started experimenting with the creation of artificial intelligence.

Kelly said that the first AI product he ever attempted to create was an interview tutor, which medical students could practise using. The name of this tool is Oscar, where students train on how to talk to a medical interviewer, and by 2020, approximately 20,000 students had been using this tool, he added.

That was the seed that grew into Heidi, he said.

With the improvement of Oscar, Kelly started witnessing its wider possibilities. No single lightbulb moment, as Kelly said, but he saw that because an AI tool might be made to comprehend a transcript of a conversation between a student and a medical examiner, it would do the same for a patient and a doctor.

Then you would be able to make clinical notes. Possibly, you would do a differential diagnosis. You might get things done,’ he said. “That is the root [of] medicine. It is an extremely high, extremely technical, profound, complex talk, yet it is a talk nonetheless.

Taking the leap

Kelly had a great choice to make in 2021: he could become a medical professional by going into a vascular surgery programme, or he could have a career break and build his AI tool to help not only medical students but also clinicians and doctors.

“I took the leap,” said Kelly. I thought I would regret it forever, and I have not taken this chance. What is the number of surgical students who are sufficiently competent in maths and have business experience and can develop this product? I think not many.”

It could be hubris, but I believed that the right person to start this company would be me, and let us see what happens, he said.

In 2021, then, Kelly finally put his career as a medical professional to the side and put everything into the construction of Heidi. The tool is used today to aid doctors in unloading part of the administrative responsibilities of drafting documentation, clinical notes, etc.

Heidi has developed into a potent company and has received close to 100 million as investment.

At some point, I simply had the introspection… when you are in an aged care home, and your family is there, what is it that you are going to regret? And with me, yes, it was; I would have been sorry I did not get to have tried, said Kelly.