Fownd is a young company creating an ambient voice recording solution to document evaluations, assessments, and plans for physical therapists. Visits, workflows, terminology, and conversations in general are different in PT than in the physician settings most ambient voice solutions are designed for. Fownd, which has many physical therapists on its team, is designing its solution with every aspect of the PT’s needs in mind.
In this video, Co-Founder Christina Rama explains that PTs are a second thought in other ambient solutions. Companies that focus on automating clinical documentation start with physicians and cover PT as an add-on. Correspondingly, EHRs for PT incorporate AI and documentation support as an add-on. Fownd’s focus make it uniquely valuable.
Furthermore, while many ambient solutions focus on compliance and billing, which are topmost in the minds of health care practices’ managers, Fownd starts by supporting care.
Rama is trained as a PT herself, and started Fownd because PTs were complaining about overhead and leaving her practice.
She says that they train their own LLM, rather than wrapping generic LLMs with terms for their particular discipline.
The Fownd solution runs in a browser, requiring no installation (and clinicians can try it without a sign-up). A plug-in allows the clinician to add the final data directly into a web based EHR, and they seek direct integration with EHRs in the future.
During an evaluation, a clinician can enter information by speaking it or typing it in. Shorthand is recognized and expanded. Information can also be copied and pasted from an EHR. Rama says the tool “works the same way you do,” trying to be “unobtrusive and in the background.” It works in noisy environments (which are common in PT, given the equipment in use). A microphone can be used, but normally is unnecessary.
The clinician checks the finished document, and Rama says that current users report Fownd working well without much need for human corrections. The tool also adapts to the style of the individual therapist over time.
Fownd also enhances the conversation. It pops up reminders if the clinician misses something required for compliance.
They are working on computer vision so that PTs can check how a patient is exercising at home. They hope to capture range of motion and do functional tracking, so that they can highlight the gradual changes that mark patient progress and that insurers look for. Remote monitoring is a future goal as well.
Watch the video for more information about Fownd’s current capabilities and plans for the future.
Learn more about Fownd: https://fownd.care/
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