After spending nearly a decade developing the on-demand service as Uber Eats’ first general manager for Latin America and later as COO of Rappi, Caroline Melin knew how far behind healthcare technology was. Patients expected their doctors to respond as quickly as delivery apps, but most medical professionals on the continent are forced to rely on WhatsApp for all patient communications.
“As a patient, especially as an American, I thought it was incredible that I could text my doctor on WhatsApp and he would respond,” she told TechCrunch.
But Merrin also realized how overwhelming this method of communication can be for doctors. “A doctor who sees 20 patients during the day will receive 100 messages when he gets home and is expected to answer them immediately and remember who the patient is, even if he doesn’t have the health records in front of him,” she said.
Melin had been interested in starting her own startup for years, and saw an opportunity to improve the communication challenges of physicians. So two years ago, she launched Leona Health, an AI co-pilot that integrates with doctors’ WhatsApp accounts.
On Tuesday, Leona revealed it had raised $14 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from General Catalyst. Kate Ryder, CEO of Accel;Maven Clinic. David Vélez, Nubank CEO; and Lappi CEO Simon Borrello. The company also announced that its services are now available to physicians in 22 medical specialties in 14 countries in Latin America.
In Leona’s case, patients continue to send messages on WhatsApp, while doctors receive and manage their communications through the startup’s mobile app. The app sorts all messages by priority, suggests replies, and allows other team members (such as doctors and nurses) to reply to patients on the doctor’s behalf.
The startup also plans to soon launch a fully autonomous agent that handles conversational scheduling and simple ingestion.
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According to Melin, solving the challenges of WhatsApp communication in Latin America is important because patients in Latin America often choose their doctors based on whether they want to communicate using WhatsApp channels.
“These poor doctors are getting very serious requests for medical advice, like, ‘I need a letter to my child’s school,’ or ‘I need a receipt for last week’s doctor’s appointment,” Melin said.
Physicians often need to monitor WhatsApp 24 hours a day, as these messages can arrive in the evening or on weekends. Leona solves this problem by immediately alerting doctors to only the most serious health requests, allowing them to deprioritize routine and administrative questions.
“The idea is to give doctors time back,” Melin said. “We hear from our users that they save two to three hours per day using Leona.”
Leona is starting by serving Latin America, but the company’s long-term mission is to expand its services to other regions. Unlike in the US, patients also request and are allowed to communicate with their doctors via WhatsApp rather than an electronic medical record system like Epic.
Leona’s 13-person team is currently split between Mexico City and Silicon Valley, where Melin says there are some talented AI engineers.
