Intron Health, a pioneering health tech company specializing in clinical speech recognition for over 200 accents spoken in developing countries, starting with Africa, has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Microtraction, with contributions from Plug and Play Ventures, Jaza Rift Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Africa Health Ventures, OpenseedVC, Pi Campus, Alumni Angel, and Baker Bridge Capital, as well as angel investors from global companies including Google and Optum.
With this funding, Intron Health will enhance its research, strengthen cloud-native and on-prem capabilities, and expand distribution. The company will also recruit tech talent to support product development and market expansion.
Addressing Critical Needs in African Healthcare
Launched in 2020, Intron Health quickly identified data entry as a major bottleneck to electronic medical record (EMR) adoption. High patient traffic led to thousands of keystrokes per day, increasing documentation time and patient wait times. To tackle these inefficiencies, Intron developed Africa’s first clinical speech recognition platform, achieving up to 92% accuracy on medical terminology with heavy accents.
This platform allows doctors across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and most recently Uganda, to complete documentation seven times faster, significantly boosting the adoption of EMRs and reducing administrative burdens.
Significant Impact and Growth
Intron Health’s solution has drastically improved operational efficiency at institutions like the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Dr. Oluwatosin Fatade, Chief Resident at the Radiology Department, praised the technology, noting it reduced report turnaround time from 48 hours to just 20 minutes. “It’s refreshing to see technology that helps doctors amidst the challenges facing healthcare in Nigeria,” he said.
Currently, Intron Health serves over 30 public and private hospitals, including Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Meridian Health Group Nairobi, providing care to more than 56,000 patients.
Innovative Solutions and Global Collaborations
Intron Health has built Africa’s largest clinical speech dataset, containing over 3.5 million audio clips across multiple specialties and domains. This dataset enables the company to train its algorithms for deployment with minimal additional fine-tuning. The platform, accessible via any device, converts spoken information into text, facilitating data entry into EMRs and saving time.
In collaboration with Google Research, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Digital Square at PATH, Intron is working on AfriMed-QA, a project evaluating large language models (LLMs) for medical question-answering across 15 countries. This initiative aims to fine-tune culturally attuned models for use in African clinics.
Future Prospects
Intron Health’s Managing Director, Tobi Olatunji, expressed excitement about the company’s growth and impact. “We are addressing a significant need and providing a solution to a critical problem in the global south. We look forward to our next phase of growth,” he said.
Dayo Koleowo, partner at Microtraction, highlighted Intron Health’s innovative spirit and potential for significant value to the healthcare sector.
Intron Health is also exploring use cases for its voice technology beyond healthcare, demonstrating its transformative potential across various sectors in Africa.
With strategic partnerships and a commitment to innovation, Intron Health is set to continue revolutionizing healthcare in Africa and beyond.
