Vital, the AI-powered software increasing productivity and improving patient health in hospital emergency rooms, today announces a $5.2 million Seed round Led by First Round Capital and Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture). Vital uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to triage patients before they see a doctor, making it easier and faster for providers to coordinate care and prioritize patients with a fast, reliable, and incredibly user-friendly system.

Raised to help grow the Vital team of engineers and data scientists, and to bring its secure, cloud-based software to emergency rooms across the United States, the round also includes Bragiel Brothers, Meridian Street Capital, Refactor Capital, and SV Angel, with angel investment from Vivek Garipalli, CEO of CloverHealth; and Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, founders of Flatiron Health. Josh Kopelman, founder and partner at First Round Capital, will join Vital's board of directors.

"The HITECH* Act was well-intentioned, but now hospitals rely on outdated, slow, and inefficient software - and nowhere is it more painful than in the emergency room," says Vital founder and CEO Aaron Patzer. "Doctors and nurses often put more time into paperwork and data entry than patient care. Vital uses smart, easy tech to reverse that, cutting wait times in half, reducing provider burnout and saving hospitals millions of dollars."

Patzer brings capital, confidence and credibility to Vital from his success with Mint.com, which transformed dense and illegible bank data into an easy consumer product. The decision to take on an even higher-stakes, more regulated industry came after seeing firsthand the antiquated software hospitals use. Teaming up with Justin Schrager, Doctor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University Hospital, Patzer invested a million dollars and two years of peer-reviewed academic study and technical research and development to create Vital, now ready to rollout to the benefit of patients, providers and hospitals.

"Vital successfully built software with a modern, no-training-required interface, while also meeting HIPAA compliance. It's what people expect from consumer software, but rarely see in healthcare," says Kopelman. "Turning massive amounts of complex and regulated data into clean, easy products is what Mint.com did for money, and we're proud to back a solution that'll do the same in life and death situations."

*The ACA's Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health

About Vital

Vital is a modern software for hospital emergency departments that makes it easier to coordinate care and prioritize patients. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), Vital triages patients before they see a doctor, reducing length of stay and saving hospitals millions with an improved flow. Founded by Mint.com creator Aaron Patzer (@apatzer), Vital is HIPAA-compliant, and a cloud-based software that sits on top of any existing electronic health record system (EHR): Epic, Cerner, Meditech, and more. The company's investors include First Round Capital, Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture), Bragiel Brothers, Meridian Street Capital, Refactor Capital, Vivek Garipalli, SV Angel, and Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg. For more information please visit vitaler.com or follow us on Twitter (@Vital_EHR).