AWS and General Catalyst collaborate to accelerate the creation of AI solutions for healthcare.

• A partnership between Amazon Web Services and General Catalyst aims to speed up the creation and implementation of AI tools in healthcare.
• AWS will provide services to General Catalyst's portfolio companies, including Aidoc and Commure, to develop new solutions. No financial details were shared.
• "AI implementation in the health system is now made simpler for leaders who wish to realize its benefits," stated Dan Sheeran of AWS.

On Monday, General Catalyst announced a new multi-year partnership aimed at capturing a larger share of the growing artificial intelligence market within the health-care industry.

With the help of AWS, General Catalyst portfolio companies will accelerate the development and deployment of AI solutions for healthcare systems. Aidoc and Commure, both utilizing AI in their respective fields of medical imaging and provider workflows, will be the initial participants in this collaboration.

No financial terms were disclosed in the announcement.

Chris Bischoff, head of global health-care investing at General Catalyst, stated in an interview with CNBC that without strong partners like Amazon and AWS to collaborate and support these companies, their progress may not be as rapid as desired.

The U.S. health systems are facing challenges such as staff burnout, labor shortages, and thin profit margins. These issues attract tech startups to tackle them, as the multi-trillion dollar health-care industry promises large financial returns.

The healthcare industry is a complex, technology-intensive, and highly regulated sector that presents challenges for startups. To help its portfolio companies overcome these obstacles, General Catalyst is partnering with AWS to accelerate the development and market entry process by utilizing AWS's computing resources.

General Catalyst is no stranger to taking big swings in health-care.

Since 2020, the firm has closed more than 60 digital health deals, placing it behind only Gaingels and Alumni Ventures, according to a December report from PitchBook. In January 2021, General Catalyst stunned the industry with the announcement that its new venture, the Health Assurance Transformation Company, planned to acquire an Ohio-based health system – a groundbreaking move in venture capital.

AWS was drawn to General Catalyst due to its "in-depth knowledge" of healthcare systems' financial and operational aspects, according to Dan Sheeran, AWS' general manager of Healthcare & Life Science. Sheeran and Bischoff discussed the partnership between the two groups after meeting in London nine months ago.

AWS has a significant presence in the health-care sector and offers more specialized services in health and life sciences than any other cloud provider, as stated in a release. Additionally, the company formed high-profile AI partnerships with companies such as , and others last year.

The partnership between General Catalyst and AWS will continue for several years, with new tools from Aidoc and Commure set to launch in 2025. Aidoc is currently investigating how it can leverage cloud technology to access diverse data modalities across pathology, cardiology, genomics, and other molecular information.

AWS chose to collaborate with Aidoc and Commure because they have successfully established a product-market fit, are operational, and are concentrating on critical issues for their customers.

"Bischoff stated that GC has devoted considerable time to contemplating how health systems can evolve and acknowledged that it will not occur through 1,000 companies. Instead, they require enterprise-level solutions. Amazon shares this perspective, which is why they are commencing with these two."

The partnership between General Catalyst and AWS is in its early stages, but both organizations believe it will help meet the growing demand for new solutions in the market.

Sheeran stated that health system leaders can now more easily realize the benefits of AI.