by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden)
Google Glass is no longer being marketed to consumers, but its enterprise business continues to pick up pace, and today one of the more promising companies developing medical services using Google’s connected eyewear is announcing a significant investment in its technology, which aims to “rehumanise the interaction” between doctors and patients by pulling physicians’ faces away from their computer screens, according to its CEO.
Augmedix, a startup out of San Francisco that has developed a platform for doctors to collect, update and recall patient and other medical data in real-time, has raised $17 million in a strategic round.
The investment is significant because of who is making it: it comes from five of the biggest healthcare providers in the U.S. — Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), TriHealth Inc., and a fifth that is remaining unnamed for now. Together, these groups — which operate hospitals and other facilities, and in other aspects compete against each other for business in the healthcare industry — cover about 100,000 doctors and other healthcare providers and millions of patients. The idea will be for Augmedix to supply these physicians and other staff with their connected eyewear.
