Beyond AI scribes: Aisel raises €1.7M to tackle psychiatry’s capacity crisis

The Danish HealthTech company Aisel Health has secured €1.7 million in pre-seed funding to address psychiatry's capacity crisis. The round was led by Caesar Ventures, with participation from Nordic Web Ventures, LifeX, Angel Invest, Rockstart, and EIFO.

Mental healthcare has long been underfunded, stigmatized, and neglected by innovation, while demand for psychiatric care is growing faster than health systems can accommodate. Patients often face lengthy waiting lists, with some waiting weeks, months, or even longer to see a clinician. Christian Houen, Aisel's co-founder and Chief Product Officer, emphasized the need for shorter, more efficient cycles between consultations, fueled by the understanding clinicians accumulate over time.

AI scribes can document patient information more efficiently, but this does not necessarily enhance clinicians' understanding of the patient. In fact, making documentation easier may lead to more documentation, which can be detrimental when clinicians need to locate relevant information quickly. Aisel aims to overcome this human limitation by surfacing concise, organized information shortly before a consultation, thus helping clinicians arrive prepared without adding more preparation time, while reducing both consultation and post-appointment documentation time.

Aisel's platform reduces the time psychiatrists spend on evidence gathering by utilizing interview recordings, existing documents, and patients' own accounts to generate structured, contextual insights. This information is presented to clinicians just before, during, and after consultations, enabling them to access relevant information directly, along with its sources and citations.

This approach facilitates continuity of care, especially when patients switch providers or when the same clinician sees multiple patients. Aisel's technology can also gather information from external sources, such as relatives, schools, and other relevant parties, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the patient.