Amboss, the “Google for medicine” platform for students, residents, doctors and other healthcare professionals, originally began as a app for German med school students.
The founders wanted to fix the over-information problem they experienced as students and later as physicians. Between Qbanks, textbooks, review books, lecture notes, personal notes and other tools, they struggled to manage all their resources and keep track of their long-term progress.
“Medical knowledge does not find its way into practice efficiently,” Amboss co-CEO Benedikt Hochkirchen told TechCrunch. “This has two main root causes: the way we educate doctors is outdated, and the way doctors access knowledge is inefficient.”
As such, Amboss became the platform they wished had existed when they were students. A customisable knowledge base for every learning style, the Berlin-based company offers the latest in medical information and guidelines and the resources that students and residents need to succeed.
“Young doctors have to take over a lot of responsibility early in their career,” Hochkirchen explained. “Career starters are regularly the first touch point with a doctor when a patient enters a hospital. Often young doctors do not feel properly prepared for the real-life challenges in those situations. Amboss is the source of choice to master those decisions, e.g. with emergency algorithms and lead symptoms.”
The content was created with strict, internal peer-reviewed protocol by an international team of over 50 doctors and 40 software engineers. Feedback was provided by medical students who scored in the top percentiles on their board exams. Each entry has been reviewed by at least three medical professionals and one copyeditor prior to appearing on the app.
As time went on, the company realised that these problems plagued medical students and healthcare professionals around the world. Five years after its founding, Amboss has become the number one European medical study resource, and the app is used by 96 percent of medical students in its native Germany.
After releasing an English-language MedTech platform in 2017, Amboss has spread to over 190 countries and 200,000 users. Once the company opened its New York headquarters that same year, leading doctors from Harvard, Yale and Stanford joined the team and helped launch Amboss in the US market, as reported by EU-Startups.com.
The platform has since progressed from an app for students and residents to an extensive data base to help even the most experienced doctors provide better clinical service.
“It is almost impossible for the doctor to stay up to date for every possible indication,” the CEO said. “Amboss provides them with precise knowledge based on latest guidelines to ensure doctors choose the best therapy possible.”
According to the CEO, the app greatly reduces the average research time needed for doctors to make a clinical decision—from 30 minutes to 30 seconds.
“In clinical practice, doctors would adapt 50 percent of their decisions if they had the latest and precise knowledge at hand,” Hochkirchen said. “In real life on the wards, doctors lack the time to research and find the relevant knowledge.
“For them, Amboss’ smart guidance app is there to provide instant, convenient and reliable medical knowledge to carry out the best possible care.”
The company raised €30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Partech’s growth fund and Target Global served as a co-investor. Other participants include existing investors including Cherry Ventures, Wellington Partners and Holtzbrinck Digital.
The funds will be used to accelerate the global expansion of the platform with a focus on the United States. Amboss also plans on further developing the app for both generalist and specialist doctors to aid in daily decision making on the wards.
