Function Health Funding Reveals Surge in AI Health Demand  ## Metadata - Author: [[Hard Fork AI]] - Full Title: Function Health Funding Reveals Surge in AI Health Demand - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/f628e145-b563-463e-8cae-fcacbf63d9e5 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **AI Consolidates Fragmented Health Data** - Function Health aims to consolidate diverse health data into usable insights by feeding it to AI models. - The company raised $298M at a $2.5B valuation to scale that vision and data collection. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Today in healthcare, a ton of data is constantly being generated. We have wearable devices like our Apple Watch that is tracking a ton of different biometric data points. We have electronic health records. We have blood tests that are coming out that a lot of people are doing. Some of these things you can order online, do it yourself, get a ton of interesting information, allergy tests. There's so much of this health information that is out there in health data, but right now the amount of information is not actually, all of this information is not actually being used In a meaningful way that is helping you improve your health. You may take a test, you might get a result for one specific thing, but there is a lot more that we could be doing. So that's what Function Health is working on. They have a regular lab testing service that's going to help people track their health, and they want to be able to essentially help you consolidate health data and make it usable for A lot of different things. They're going to feed it to an AI model, and you're going to be able to get a lot of information from it. So with all of that being said, the company recently raised $298 million in their series B. This round was led by Redpoint Ventures. And like I mentioned in the beginning, it's a $2.5 billion valuation. ([Time 0:01:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/758ed73b-7806-4277-b093-aea6d91ce668)) - **Prepare For Deep Skepticism In Health Tech** - Expect skepticism in consumer health tech because of past failures like Theranos and DNA data breaches. - Raise substantial capital and prioritize security to overcome trust barriers. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer I think a lot of people, when they think of technology and healthcare, they think of Theranos and the big scam where you do this kind of small blood test. You prick your thumb and it was supposed to give you like 100 different blood tests. And of course, it ended up not being able to actually do that. And so I think a lot of people are skeptical of tech and healthcare and blood test kind of companies. ([Time 0:03:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/771e1311-d4da-4e63-aecf-bc6d3e7ab5e1)) - **Use Clinician‑Trained Models And Protect Data** - Apply clinician-trained generative models to personal data for richer, personalized health guidance. - Ensure HIPAA compliance, encryption, and explicit non-sale of personal data to build user trust. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer With all of the funding that they've just raised, they unveiled something new, which is called Medical Intelligence Lab. Basically, this is them trying to build a medical intelligence generative AI model. And it's going to be used to provide personalized health insights based on your data, right? So all of the data that you have coming from your Apple watch and all of your other different health trackers, they said that it is trained by doctors, which is something unique about This model they've made. And for its customers, they are going to be offering an AI chat bot that can answer any questions based on your health data. And it can tap into any of your previous lab results, any of your previous doctor's notes. It's going to scan and provide a bunch of tailored assistance to you so you can sit there and ask questions about your health. It's interesting because just last night I was chatting with ChatGPT. I had a terrible stomachache after eating Olive Garden. Maybe it wasn't Olive Garden's fault. I don't know. I won't point the finger and blame. But I was asking ChatGPT. I'm like, I didn't have any Tums. And I was like, how do I make like homemade Tums? Like, I don't know, whatever. So I had this like whole medical conversation with ChatGPT. And obviously it wasn't something that was incredibly critical. But you can imagine people have these conversations all the time about all sorts of things, varying degrees of importance. And think of how amazing it would be if beyond just talking to ChatGPD in a general sense, there was an AI model that literally knew all of your health metrics. It could see what, you know, your heart rate was. It could see everything alive and everything historic that you had, and it would give you way more tailored results. So this is kind of what they're building. This is what their CEO, Jonathan Swirlin, said about it. He said, it's not good enough to be in a world where AI exists and not be applying it to your health. He said, you should be able to manage your biology. The objective of function health is to apply the best available technology to human health. He also went on to say that their platform is HIPAA compliant, which is important. It fully encrypts your data. It never sells your personal information. He said, your data and your identity are never for sale. Every bit of your information is fully encrypted and protected. We are committed to keeping you and your data safe. ([Time 0:03:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/09eef672-d232-4a03-975d-ad31455b28b6)) - **Host's Chat With ChatGPT After Stomachache** - Jaeden recounts asking ChatGPT for home remedies after a stomachache to illustrate current limits of general models. - He uses this to highlight the advantage of models that have access to personal health metrics. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer It's interesting because just last night I was chatting with ChatGPT. I had a terrible stomachache after eating Olive Garden. Maybe it wasn't Olive Garden's fault. I don't know. I won't point the finger and blame. But I was asking ChatGPT. I'm like, I didn't have any Tums. And I was like, how do I make like homemade Tums? Like, I don't know, whatever. So I had this like whole medical conversation with ChatGPT. And obviously it wasn't something that was incredibly critical. But you can imagine people have these conversations all the time about all sorts of things, varying degrees of importance. And think of how amazing it would be if beyond just talking to ChatGPD in a general sense, there was an AI model that literally knew all of your health metrics. ([Time 0:04:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d21b68b9-a1d1-4c13-a9cf-e0f419e97b90)) - **Doctors Create A Moat For Medical AI** - Function Health involves doctors deeply in model training to create a defensible moat. - Expert involvement plus unique datasets differentiates medical AI from general-purpose models. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Their chief medical scientist is Dr. Dan Sotikinson, and he is a co-founder, chief medical officer. There's also Dr. Mark Hyman, and they're both working together to kind of lead the development of MI labs. And they have a whole team of doctors, of researchers, of engineers. And their model that they've built is trained by all those doctors, like I mentioned before, which I think is really important. ([Time 0:06:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/492381c1-2bf0-43a7-9720-c94edf625a36)) - **Device‑Agnostic Platform Drives Adoption** - Function takes a device-agnostic approach, aggregating data from watches, labs, and EHRs rather than forcing proprietary hardware. - They've completed over 50 million lab tests since 2023 and offer Quest lab access to scale data intake. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So obviously there's a bunch of other players in the space, but Function is trying to be different from all the other competitors. There's Superpower, there's Nico Help, there's InsideTracker. And the thing that Function is doing and they're trying to be a little bit different is they're doing what they're saying is a device agnostic approach. Essentially that they're adding their platform integration, lab testing, their diagnostics, their clinical insights, and all of that so that you can have all of these different Platforms and bring the data in just to one place. So it's not like it's, you know, you have to have their one specific piece of hardware in order to track all of your information. You can get it from other places. And because of this, the information it's going to give you is a lot more than you're going to get from a typical AI coach or a wellness app. And I will say that you can also get lab tests done at over 2000 Quest locations. And apparently they've made, they've completed more than 50 million lab tests since 2023, which is really impressive. ([Time 0:07:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cf8ae846-d57c-4afc-955e-d67d7f8e5e1f))