Heidi Acquires AutoMedica and Unveils New Clinical AI Products
Heidi Acquires AutoMedica and Unveils New Clinical AI Products
Heidi, a global leader in clinical artificial intelligence (AI), has announced the acquisition of UK-based AI startup AutoMedica, alongside the launch of two innovative tools designed to expand its healthcare platform. With these developments, Heidi aims to enhance its presence in clinical decision-making, evidence retrieval and patient communication.
New Tools for Clinicians
The company has introduced two products, Heidi Evidence and Heidi Comms, expanding its AI Care Partner platform. Heidi Evidence is an ad-free research tool that helps clinicians interpret complex medical literature and unstructured clinical conversations. Meanwhile, Heidi Comms focuses on patient communication, streamlining appointment bookings, reminders, and follow-ups.
Heidi Evidence, which utilises large language models such as Anthropic’s Claude, offers real-time summaries, citations, and verbatim excerpts to support clinicians during consultations. This feature can operate independently or integrate with Heidi’s existing AI Scribe tool. According to Heidi, the platform now supports over 100 million clinical interactions globally, including 2.4 million consultations per week across emergency departments, general practices, and specialist clinics in 190 countries.
To ensure accessibility, Heidi is offering Heidi Evidence free of charge to individual clinicians, funding access through enterprise customers. "We believe that for AI to be a true care partner, the integrity of its evidence must be non-negotiable", said Dr Thomas Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Heidi. Addressing concerns over advertising in AI tools, he added, "By committing to Evidence being ad-free and independent, we ensure clinicians can stay present with their patients, knowing their decision-making is built on pure clinical rigour, not a business model."
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A Strategic Acquisition
The acquisition of AutoMedica brings a wealth of expertise to Heidi's team. AutoMedica has developed a UK-focused clinical decision support product and participated in the MHRA AI Regulatory Airlock Programme, a regulatory sandbox aimed at testing healthcare AI applications. Its team, including founders with backgrounds in clinical research and artificial intelligence, will now join Heidi.
Dr Ben Turner, Co-Founder of AutoMedica, highlighted the importance of integrating AI within existing healthcare systems. "From the outset, we have believed that clinical AI must be built within real healthcare structures, not bolted on around the edges", he said. "Joining Heidi means we can take what we have learned and apply it at a far greater scale, within a platform that shares our focus on evidence, safety and the realities of day-to-day clinical practice."
Expanding the Platform’s Reach
By integrating AutoMedica’s capabilities, Heidi is positioning itself to address the increasing complexity of medical research and guidelines. Heidi Evidence aims to keep clinical insights transparent and free of commercial influence, a critical issue as other AI platforms transition to ad-supported models.
"Heidi is tackling one of the hardest problems in healthcare AI: how to scale capability without compromising trust", said Michael Tolo, General Partner at Blackbird. "By treating evidence as core infrastructure, not content monetised through ads or influence, Heidi is building the kind of defensible, globally relevant platform healthcare systems are demanding."
The new evidence and communication tools mark a move beyond Heidi’s original focus on transcription and note generation. As part of this expansion, the company is launching Heidi Evidence initially in private clinical settings in the UK, with plans for an NHS rollout to follow.
Maintaining Trust in Healthcare AI
Heidi’s collaboration with partners such as HealthPathways, EMGuidance, MIMS, Vidal, NICE, and BMJ Group ensures that its products are grounded in region-specific clinical guidance. The focus on transparency and evidence-led design reflects the company’s commitment to supporting clinicians in delivering patient care without succumbing to the biases of ad-supported systems.
"As we see more general-purpose AI platforms like OpenAI move toward ad-supported models, consumers are rightly concerned about hidden influence", said Dr Kelly. "In a healthcare setting, that concern becomes paramount. Bringing transparent, clinical-grade insights into the room makes it easier to deliver quality care."
The acquisition of AutoMedica and the launch of Heidi Evidence and Heidi Comms reinforce Heidi’s ambition to be at the forefront of trustworthy, scalable clinical AI solutions for healthcare professionals worldwide.