This AI Startup is Trying to Make Fax Machines Work Better for Health Care
Tennr has developed artificial intelligence models that can analyze and respond to key information in faxed documents.
Tennr uses AI to automate manual work for health providers, including analyzing and responding to key information in faxed documents.
Photographer: piyaphun/iStockphoto/Getty ImagesA new artificial intelligence startup is attracting demand from top venture capital firms and part of its pitch is improving an outdated technology with surprising staying power in health care: fax machines.
Tennr uses AI to automate manual work for health providers, including analyzing and responding to key information in faxed documents. The startup announced Tuesday that it has raised $18 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Foundation Capital, Y Combinator and others. Tennr plans to use the capital to grow its team and scale operations.
Tech companies and the federal government have tried for years to get health-care providers to go paperless, shift to electronic records and finally leave the era of the fax machine behind. But most US clinics and hospitals still deal with fax machines to manage referrals and send and receive patient records, leading to extra paper documents and manual work. As a result, it can take longer for patients to receive critical care, and there’s potential for errors.
“Referring doctor didn’t send enough info? Send a fax. Missing the insurance card? Send another fax. Need more proof of medical necessity so the specialist can bill? Send another fax,” said Trey Holterman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tennr. “Basically it’s a bunch of people talking to each other via fax.”
The New York-based startup wants to address the problem by working with faxes, not against them.
Tennr said its AI systems can, for instance, extract key patient information from faxed documents and coordinate with the patient to schedule them quickly. If a fax is incomplete, Tennr’s system can automatically request the missing information.
Holterman and his two co-founders, Diego Baugh and Tyler Johnson, all 24, met as undergrads studying machine learning at Stanford University.
The startup said its technology integrates across fax providers as well as hospitals' archaic file-storage and electronic health records systems, some of them dating back to the 1990s. Tennr said its AI systems can also decrease insurance denial as a result of poor or unclear information.