Restoring the art of medicine with AI - Heidi

Our latest episode features Dr. Thomas Kelly, a former vascular surgery resident turned entrepreneur who founded Heidi, an AI care partner that's eliminating administrative burden and restoring the physician-patient relationship.

Inspired by the attentive "tweed coat" primary care doctors of the past who focused solely on their patients, Thomas built Heidi to handle the documentation and administrative tasks that have consumed modern medicine. What began as an ambient scribe has evolved into a comprehensive support platform that generates clinical notes, patient summaries, and instructions in real-time, often before the physician leaves the room.

A key insight driving Heidi's success: if clinicians have to edit more than 10% of a generated note, they won't adopt the tool. This led to an intense focus on personalization, with specialized template editors ensuring notes match each physician's specific style rather than forcing them into a generic AI format.

Following a $65 million Series B, Heidi is expanding globally into non-English speaking markets including Germany, France, and Japan, while launching new capabilities like "Heidi Calls" for patient phone engagement. The company's product-led growth strategy, built in Australia where capital was constrained, has created viral adoption through word-of-mouth as doctors experience the magic moment of seeing high-quality notes generated instantly.

Thomas draws a firm ethical line: Heidi is "clinician allied," refusing to monetize through pharma partnerships or help organizations surveil physicians. The AI is designed as a confidential colleague, not an administrative tool.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in ambient AI documentation, product-led growth in healthcare, or building clinician-first technology companies.