OurMind raises €2.1 million to reduce burnout in healthcare

OurMind, a startup based in Amsterdam that developed a platform to embed AI in healthcare professionals' workflows, raised €2.1 million. The platform helps practitioners save time on administrative work so they can focus more on patients.

Waiting lists in healthcare are growing, doctors are working overtime, and administrative pressure continues to increase. As a result, job satisfaction among healthcare staff is declining. A quarter of young doctors are struggling with burnout symptoms, according to a study by De Jonge Specialist.

OurMind started with Notes: AI software that converts consultation conversations into medical documentation. Today, more than 300 general practices and 14 hospitals use the platform, which is being expanded to include applications for consultation preparation, administrative support, and patient communication, among other things. “Ultimately, you need an AI layer across the entire hospital,” says cardiologist Bart Driesen of Maasziekenhuis Pantein. “Doctors currently spend two to three hours a day preparing consultations, often at home in the evening. If AI can largely take that over, it changes our working day.”

Helping hospitals

“This investment enables us to scale up and expand our platform so that we can meet, and continue to meet, demand from hospitals,” says OurMind founder Paul Koning, himself a former orthopedic surgeon. “Ultimately, this is not about AI, but about how we can continue to deliver good care with the same number of people.” According to healthcare professionals involved, acceleration is urgently needed to address the increasing pressure on the healthcare system and reduce burnout among healthcare professionals.

Lead investor 4impact capital, which invests in software companies addressing societal themes such as energy, sustainability, and digitalization, has chosen a healthtech company for the first time. According to 4impact partner Victor Straatman “AI in healthcare has moved beyond the curiosity phase."

Reducing burnout

According to Koning, the ultimate goal is to preserve job satisfaction and thereby reduce burnout in healthcare. “A burnout is not only extremely difficult for the person affected, but also for the colleagues left behind and the hospital. After all, they have to absorb the impact. Fortunately, the first hospital boards are realizing that the costs of doing nothing — staff absence, waiting lists, people leaving the profession — are far greater than the costs of seriously investing in AI support now.”