November 12, 2024

Quadrivia unveils Qu

One of the first comprehensive, controllable and customizable assistant AI, built by clinicians, for clinicians.

London, Tuesday November 12th 2024 – Quadrivia today announces the beta launch of Qu, a comprehensive, controllable and customizable assistant AI, designed by clinicians for clinicians to address one of the world’s most pressing challenges: the shortage of healthcare professionals. Norrsken VC, Europe’s largest impact investor, also announces that it had made a pre-seed investment in Quadrivia. 

According to the World Health Organization, there is a global shortfall of up to 18 million healthcare workers. A root cause of the worldwide challenge with the quality, accessibility and affordability of healthcare is this structural imbalance between elastic demand by population and constrained supply of providers. The advent of artificial intelligence, be it still in its infancy, holds the promise that one day, this structural imbalance can be addressed by delivering an elastic supply of “skills” that can be made available to all in need. 

Quadrivia has assembled a global team of experienced AI scientists, technologists and prominent clinical leaders to develop a comprehensive, trainable and customizable digital personal clinical assistant for clinicians everywhere. It aims to serve healthcare professionals in provider and payer organizations with the full-stack of routine clinical and administrative tasks, patient interactions, decision making, chronic and post operative care management and continuous monitoring and support, in multiple languages. Qu’s architecture of expanding capabilities are designed to support clinicians not just for a single task but across the growing spectrum of their needs, aiming to seamlessly integrate into their existing workflows. 

Qu is built on a robust architecture that prioritizes customization, safety and reliability. Clinical tasks range from the straightforward to the highly complex. These can be broadly categorized into two types: System 1 reasoning, involving intuitive and straightforward processes such as understanding a user's intent or answering direct questions, and System 2 reasoning which requires more sophisticated cognitive processing, like considering potential competing hypotheses while taking a clinical history. Clinical AI systems must seamlessly handle both forms of reasoning in order to fulfill their goals, therefore Quadrivia is building a robust "cognitive architecture"  to effectively meet this specialized needs of the health domain. By leveraging a clinical knowledge base validated against a widening range of curated global medical guidelines, Qu minimizes hallucination and aims to offer real-time, reliable clinical support. As healthcare is delivered in a limitless number of ways, Qu aims to be highly adaptable and customizable, allowing clinicians to train their personal assistant tailored to their specific needs and operations.

Qu is still in its infancy and while developing fast, needs further improvements before deployment. Quadrivia is inviting clinicians from around the world to help test Qu’s beta version and shape its development. Once the underlying foundation of Qu meets the required operational and safety standards, Quadrivia will release a clinician only personal assistant version and open Qu for clinicians to autonomously self-train it according to their needs and preferences. Qu will only be launched in any jurisdiction after meeting all local regulatory, privacy and safety standards.

‍“Qu aims to be a personal assistant created by clinicians for all clinicians and their patients. To that end we have assembled a Clinical Advisory Council composed of prominent clinicians and digital health experts from around the world to guide the development of Qu,” said Professor Shafi Ahmed, Chairperson of Quadrivia’s Global Clinical Advisory Council. “This collective effort ensures that Qu is designed with direct input from clinicians, making it among the very few full stack clinical assistants tailored to the needs of every clinician and patient. We’re excited to have such a strong group coming together and committed to improving healthcare for everyone.”  (See the list of members of Quadrivia’s Global Clinical Advisory Council in the appendix below).

‍“Quality healthcare still eludes most of our communities across the globe. The structural imbalance between elastic demand and constrained supply has been a root cause of the worldwide challenges with quality, accessibility and affordability of healthcare. The accelerating developments in AI, while still at their infancy, has strengthened the hope to finally address this imbalance by creating an affordable and elastic source of clinical support.” explained Dr. Ali Parsa, Founder of Quadrivia. “What matters now is how this is done in order to benefit all in need rather than just a few with wealth. Care is delivered across the world in many different ways. Every clinician, provider and payer have their own needs and ways of doing their job. Our hope is to create an affordable personal clinical assistant with comprehensive capabilities across the care spectrum to help all clinicians and their patients. By making Qu highly controllable and customizable, we hope to help healthcare professionals shape how AI works for them and be in control of its safety and quality. Qu is just at the beginning of its journey and we know the huge amount it still has to learn and get right,”  added Ali. “We have a start and now we are inviting clinicians everywhere to test Qu, tell us what needs fixing and help us refine it. Once the foundation is right, we will open Qu and allow every clinician everywhere to make Qu their personal AI assistant, and adapt it to their needs and way of working. Our hope is that together, we can build a personal, comprehensive AI assistant for every clinician and their patient to help make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone, everywhere.”

"We’re backing Quadrivia because we believe the company has a unique capability to help cure healthcare’s biggest pains. Our mission is to support ventures with the potential to make a global impact at scale, and Quadrivia has the capability to create a more accessible healthcare system worldwide by freeing up clinicians to focus on what matters most—patients. We are excited to back the experienced Quadrivia team as they address one of the most fundamental issues in global healthcare."  said Niklas Adalberth, founder of Norrsken VC.

For more information, or to register for early access to Qu, visit www.quadrivia.ai.

Quadrivia’s Global Clinical Advisory Council
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Professor Shafi Ahmed, PhD, Europe
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‍Professor Shafi Ahmed is a pioneering surgeon and digital health innovator, currently serving as CEO of Medical Realities, while maintaining his position as a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust. Prof. Ahmed holds numerous academic positions, including Honorary Professor at UCL and visiting professorships at institutions like Imperial College London and Harvard Medical School. 
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‍“Qu aims to be a personal assistant created by clinicians for all clinicians and their patients. To that end we have assembled a Clinical Advisory Council composed of prominent clinicians and digital health experts from around the world to guide the development of Qu,” said Professor Shafi Ahmed, Chairman of Quadrivia’s Global Clinical Advisory Council. “This collective effort ensures that Qu is designed with direct input from clinicians, making it among the very few full stack clinical assistants tailored to the needs of every clinician and patient. We’re excited to have such a strong group coming together and committed to improving healthcare for everyone.”

‍Dr. Harvey Castro, MD, North America

‍Dr. Castro is a physician, entrepreneur, and former healthcare system CEO with over 20 years of experience. Currently, he serves as a Strategic Advisor for a range of health-tech organizations including both the Singapore and Texas Medical Associations for AI and Healthcare. Additionally he serves as Chief Medical AI Officer for Helpp AI.

‍“Qu has the potential to revolutionize the North American healthcare landscape by bridging the gap between patients and providers through advanced AI-driven insights. Its ability to deliver personalized, real-time solutions not only enhances patient outcomes but also empowers healthcare professionals to make faster, more accurate decisions. In a market as dynamic as North America, Qu represents a crucial step toward a more efficient, patient-centered future in medicine.”

‍Dr. Zubin Daruwalla, MCh (Orth), South East Asia

Dr. Daruwalla is a healthcare leader serving as Asia Pacific Health Industries Leader for PwC while remaining a practicing clinician. He has been an advisor to the Governments of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and UK among others, on HealthTech ecosystem development. Also co-founder of HiruX, he remains an independent clinical advisor to early stage HealthTech startups and Governments.

"While there’s a lot of hype around AI in healthcare, true value-driven use cases like Qu are rare. What I find most appealing about Qu is its seamless integration into my clinical workflow across all domains—clinical, financial, operational, and administrative—without requiring any changes. This is especially important in the Asia Pacific region, where maintaining existing workflows is crucial. Ethical, moral, and responsible use of Qu, alongside the guidance of its Global Clinical Advisory Council, ensures that clinical safety and quality remain paramount. Built by clinicians for clinicians, Qu is well-positioned to assist anytime, anywhere.”
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‍Prof Dr. Jefferson Fernandes, MD, South America

Prof Dr. Fernandes is a healthcare leader with extensive experience in neurology, healthcare management and digital health. He holds key positions in international telemedicine organizations, including Director of Education at the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (CH), and Editor for LATAM, Telehealth and Medicine Today (US). Prof Dr. Fernandes' career spans academia, hospital administration, and digital health innovation, with roles including Full Professor at PUCRS Medical School and Director of Education, Research and Innovation at Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz (BR). His expertise in telemedicine is evident through his leadership in telehealth initiatives and regulatory affairs. With over 16,000 LinkedIn followers, Prof Dr. Fernandes is a respected voice in healthcare innovation, combining clinical expertise with strategic management skills to advance digital health globally.

"Quadrivia is a personal clinical assistant created by physicians for physicians and their patients. Its goal is to be widely accessible and provide comprehensive features for the entire care journey, with safety and quality. We believe it will have widespread adoption and that healthcare professionals will be able to adapt its artificial intelligence for practical use.With the limited number and inadequate distribution of healthcare professionals in Latin American countries, Quadrivia could help make healthcare more accessible to everyone, everywhere.In this way, the four aims can be achieved: improve population health, enhance the patient experience, reduce the cost of care, and optimize the work of healthcare professionals, bringing them greater satisfaction.

‍Dr. Zayna Khayat, PhD, North America
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Dr. Khayat is a health futurist bridging scientific expertise with strategic insight in healthcare innovation. Holding a Ph.D. in biochemistry, she serves as health futurist in residence for Deloitte Canada, growth advisor for Teladoc Health Canada, and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

‍“Access to timely, high quality primary and specialty care expertise is the top issue and priority of health systems, payers, clinicians, patients and communities everywhere. In large land mass countries like Canada and the USA with many equity-denied populations lacking basic access to primary care physicians and specialists, solutions that break the constraints of human expertise, geography and time are vital. Quadrivia's Qu platform gives me more hope than anything I have seen in a long time to start to make a dent in this seemingly intractable challenge. Patients win.”
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‍Rebecca Love, FIEL, North America

Rebecca Love is a prominent advocate for nurse-led innovation in healthcare, currently serving as Chief Nursing Officer at connectRN. Her career spans roles such as Chief Clinical Officer at IntelyCare and Director of Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University.

‍"As nurses, we know that the global shortage of our workforce is more than a statistic—it’s a reality we feel every day at the bedside. In the U.S., the experience gap is widening, with nurses now averaging just 2.8 years on the floor in 12-hour shifts—the lowest level of bedside experience we’ve ever seen. While AI will never replace us, it holds promise to provide us with timely, critical information that can support both our work and the patients we care for.Qu is a platform that finally recognizes what we, as nurses, bring to healthcare—our unique roles, skills, and all the contributions that often go unrecorded. By capturing the full picture of what we do, Qu enables a deeper understanding of real nursing workflows and processes that keep our patients safe and the care system strong. It’s about validating our expertise, using data to amplify our voices and our impact on patient outcomes. More than just technology, it’s a path toward capturing the true value and impact of the nursing profession. With Qu, we have a chance to truly transform the future of healthcare—and finally give nursing the recognition and support it has always deserved."
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‍Dr. Tal Mahmud, GP, Europe

Tal is a GP at an NHS GP Practice, Hiyos in London www.hiyos.org. He has 25 years' of industry expertise in primary care & the NHS. He has served on boards at the commissioner (Professional Executive Committee) and provider (GP Federation) level and has a detailed understanding of operational priorities and optimizing the needs of patients and service delivery. He has also worked on integrated care projects for NHS North West London. Tal is an adjunct professor at Imperial.

"Being a general practitioner can feel overwhelming at times. With increasing demands on primary care, it’s easy to feel like there’s not enough space to focus on prevention—the area where healthcare can truly transform lives. That’s where Qu can support you. Whether it’s navigating national and local guidelines, managing patient care, or helping with onward referrals, Qu is here to lighten the load. It can even promote wellness by creating personalized diet and exercise plans, ensuring that both you and your patients are supported in every way.”

‍Dr. Unben Pillay, MBBCh, Africa

‍Dr. Pillay holds various roles in healthcare organizations, including Co-Chairperson of Africa Telehealth Collaboration, CEO of the Independent Practitioners Association Foundation, and Founding Member of the Digital Healthcare Association of South Africa. Dr. Pillay also serves as an advisor to several healthcare organization boards and as a faculty member at multiple universities.

‍“Qu represents a transformative step forward in healthcare, particularly for Africa, where the challenges of accessibility and affordability are most acute. By leveraging the latest advancements in AI, Qu aims to bridge the gap between limited healthcare resources and the growing demand for quality care. Our goal is to empower clinicians across the continent with a personal assistant that understands their unique needs and the diverse healthcare landscapes they operate in. This is not just about technology; it’s about creating a sustainable solution that can adapt to and support the dynamic healthcare environments in Africa. We are committed to ensuring that Qu becomes an indispensable tool for every clinician, enhancing their ability to provide the best possible care to their patients.”

‍Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, PhD, South Asia

Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta is a leading global voice in Digital Health. His book ‘Digital Health- Truly Transformational’ remains the global bestseller and is the most comprehensive book on Digital Health. Having also served as public policy expert, he was instrumental in drafting the election manifesto for Mr. Narendra Modi in 2014. Dr. Rajendra has been involved in major global initiatives and holds several key positions in the UN bodies. He leads three dynamic coalitions at the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum; DC on Digital Economy, Environment, and Digital Health. He is also Member, Board of Directors, International Society for Telemedicine and e-Health (ISfTeH); and Chairman - Commonwealth AI Consortium (Capacity Building).

‍“Qu is designed with insights from global and local clinical leaders to address the unique healthcare demands of countries like India. Taking on routine tasks enables clinicians to focus on high-stakes, life-saving decisions. In a setting where time, financial, and human resources are often stretched, there is no chance to err. We have the ever-increasing healthcare needs of 1.4 billion people; this tool is indispensable- it's quintessential. You'll need to experience its simplicity and effectiveness to appreciate its impact truly." 

‍About Quadrivia

Quadrivia is the health technology company behind Qu, a comprehensive, controllable, and customizable assistant AI built by clinicians, for clinicians. Addressing the urgent shortage of healthcare professionals, Qu provides real-time, personal, and reliable support for clinical and administrative tasks across the care continuum. Designed for providers, payers, and pharmaceutical companies, Qu is easy to customize and integrates seamlessly into workflows, delivering precise assistance across the care spectrum.

Quadrivia prioritizes clinical and patient safety at every step of Qu’s development, ensuring compliance with regional regulations. Qu’s robust architecture and advanced technology are built to meet the highest standards of care.

Learn more at www.quadrivia.ai.

About Norrsken
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Norrsken VC is Europe's leading early-stage fund investing in impact. Headquartered in Stockholm with an investment philosophy framed around the UN's 17 SDGs, Norrsken VC backs startups solving the world's biggest problems while building massive businesses.