Israeli born startup, Simply Speak, which uses conversational-AI to automate documentation of telehealth sessions, announces a $1.1 million Seed round led by Angel investors and Glenn Loomis, MD, CMO and the company’s first investor. The really interesting thing about Loomis is that he was positioned pretty comfortably as Ex. President and CMO at HealthQuest, then after first investing in Simply Speak, he left his high-paying position and joined the Israeli startup full-time.

This surprising Seed round came due to the company looking to expand operations and growth following the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, which has made telemedicine more of necessity. The company has been bootstrapped since it was founded in 2019 by CEO Moti Tomashin, who in his past life worked as a healthcare attorney; and CTO Yaron Aronshn, who was formerly Executive Chief Architect at Cyvera (acquired by Palo Alto Networks).

Simply Speak’s platform essentially turns doctor-patient speech into documentation, freeing up the physician from typing and clicking during telehealth sessions. This type of telemedicine technology helps the logjam of data entry forced on doctors, which occur usually while their patient is explaining about their aches and pains. Simply Speak’s technology allows doctors to be more focused on their patients and their medical issues or as the company perfectly puts it “restoring humanity to the practice of medicine”, which especially during these frightening times should be an essential practice.  

“The big advantage that telehealth has over a regular phone call is the ability to maintain eye-contact with the patient,” said Moti Tomashin, CEO and Co-Founder. “The absurd is that physicians now look away from the screen in order to take notes, losing the human aspect of the conversation."

The service is easily integrated and launches directly from the EMR (electronic medical records) enabling a simple 3-click process that transforms speech into medical documentation that the doctor can review at the end of the session. As doctors face heavier workloads during the pandemic, Simply Speak’s service is not only tethered to making the telehealth process more efficient, but also frees up time for doctors who can forgo the countless hours of entering medical data manually and open up more time for leisure and personal well-being, which in turn should create better care and improve patient-doctor relationships.

Advisory Board member Dr. Michael Ghalchi, Owner of Manhattan Cardiovascular Associates, added, “Simply Speak saves our physicians time, helps them communicate with their patients better, and ultimately improves both patients and physician satisfaction in a telemedicine setting.”