Sofya, the first incubatee of Alma-HSL, presents a case at Rio Innovation Week Voice Transcription MVP Impacted Hundreds of Healthcare Professionals, Becoming the Pilot for the Innovation Program, Which Now Features Numerous Startups
Sofya participated in the Rio Innovation Week, one of the largest innovation events in Brazil and Latin America, which took place from October 3 to 6, presenting a case at the Open Innovation Week (OIWeek), the first congress of its kind organized by "Open 100 Startups," promoting entrepreneurship and open innovation in Brazil. Sofya shared the case study "NLP Applied to Patient Data Entry," developed in partnership with Hospital Sírio-Libanês (HSL), one of the country's most renowned hospitals.
"HSL took the initiative to collaborate with the startup Sofya to find a solution that would streamline patient record data entry, saving time for teams and ensuring more complete and accurate documentation," says product manager Ana Carolina Valle.
According to Ana, the partnership initially focused on nursing professionals and resulted in an MVP of voice solution trained to recognize typical healthcare vocabulary, significantly reducing the time spent on this task.
Sofya used voice recognition and natural language processing technologies, combining the innovative use of HL7-FHIR interoperability standards throughout the solution's infrastructure, ensuring easy and standardized data exchange between different systems.
"The success of the solution motivated its implementation in other areas of the hospital, such as the Surgical Center. The partnership evolved and extended beyond the initial context, even leading to cooperation in scientific research development in the USA," Ana adds.
The experience of open innovation provided significant learning for Sofya, which became the first startup incubated by Alma-HSL, impacting hundreds of healthcare professionals and serving as a pilot for the hospital's innovation program, which now includes several other startups.
"The use of voice and natural language solutions to streamline the daily tasks of healthcare professionals can revolutionize the relationship between doctors and patients," she points out.
The results have been surprising. In the nursing context, initial measurements indicate a reduction of up to 40% in the time spent on vital signs form filling. Currently, the solution is used by more than 100 nursing professionals, and thousands of records have been made using Sofya.
In the surgical center context, there was a reported reduction of up to 70% in the time spent on surgery reporting. Besides optimizing doctors' time, the solution also produced more comprehensive descriptions in less time, contributing to a reduction in errors and procedure disputes.
According to Ana, as solutions become increasingly intelligent and autonomous, professionals can dedicate their time and attention to patient care rather than administrative tasks.
"This reduces the burden and burnout of healthcare teams while also contributing to more complete and accurate documentation, preventing errors, and increasing safety and empathy in patient care."
The experience between Sofya and Hospital Sírio-Libanês is an example of how open innovation can promote the growth of all involved parties.
"Today, I can't tell Sofya's story without mentioning this innovation case and the partnership with Alma and Hospital Sírio-Libanês. It was a very close collaboration that has been opening new opportunities every day."
New Products
In October, Sofya will participate in three major events in the United States: Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo™ 2023, the NCQA Innovation Summit 2023, and SNOMED-CT Expo 2023. The goal is to present their two new developments: the Protocol Editor and the Clinical Reasoner, super-intelligences programmed with clinical language by doctors and healthcare experts, assisting with routine task automation and complex clinical decision support.