10x the Incumbent with AI | Abridge
Clinical notes are one of the more tedious parts of doctors’ day-to-day lives—so much so that they’re often called “pajama time,” since physicians spend 2-3 hours writing them at night. In this episode, Steve Kraus sits down with Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge, an AI-first healthcare company that’s been in the spotlight for solving this problem. Abridge uses advanced machine learning to structure and summarize medical conversations, creating clinical documentation and structured data while reducing clinician burnout.
Shiv traces his journey from a skateboarding rebel to a cardiologist, professor, healthcare investor, and now founder of a pioneering digital health startup. He shares how his passion for scalable impact and exposure to cutting-edge research at Carnegie Mellon led him to start Abridge in 2018.
Steve and Shive discuss:
How Abridge differentiated itself early on through AI technology and go-to-market (GTM) strategy
The company’s ROI and anti-burnout metrics, like note quality, pajama time, and cognitive load
Clinician-AI collaboration vs. direct-to-consumer applications
The surprising parallels between managing an ICU and running a startup
The habits and mindsets that keep Shiv grounded while leading a fast-growing, mission-driven company
About our guest:
Shiv Rao, MD, is the Founder and CEO of Abridge, an AI company that structures and summarizes medical conversations to unburden clinicians from clerical work, and focus on what matters most—their patients. Abridge’s science-centered technology platform transforms conversations into structured data and clinical documentation across over 50 specialties, 14 languages, and several care settings. Abridge’s documentation solution is now saving clinicians 3 hours a day, and its EMR integrated patient-facing summaries are helping people better understand and follow through on their care plans.
Dr. Rao is a practicing cardiologist at UPMC and previously led the provider-facing investment portfolio for UPMC where he invested in startups, and also helped fund a Machine Learning in Health program at Carnegie Mellon University. He completed his medical education and training at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and studied at Carnegie Mellon where he programmed virtual synthesizers, and skateboarded in IMAX movies.
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