This Serial Entrepreneur Wants The FDA To Approve His AI Doctor

Forbes Daily Briefing

Forbes

Business, Tech News, News

4.4 • 18 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martin Varsavsky has trouble keeping track of all the ventures he’s started. There are more than a dozen of them, including a handful that became worth more than $1 billion. But Certuma, which launched quietly this winter, may be his biggest idea yet: He plans to build the first FDA-approved AI doctor. “What’s happening now is everyone you know, and probably you yourself, are checking your medical problems with AI. But then what happens when you want action? The AI, after giving you a wonderful, accurate diagnosis of what’s wrong with you, says, ‘I am not a doctor,’” Varsavsky tells Forbes. He ticks off all the questions it might answer this way, from getting a prescription to scheduling imaging. “I want to fix the ‘I am not a doctor’ problem by building AI that is recognized by the FDA and recognized by the states.” AI doctors could help solve an important problem, much like telemedicine did during the Covid-19 pandemic. There simply aren’t enough physicians to serve all the people who need them, especially in rural areas. The shortage is only getting worse. More than 100 million people in the United States face barriers to accessing primary care.Meanwhile, some 46% of counties don’t have a cardiologist; in rural counties, that number rises to 86%. By Amy Feldman, Senior Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:52.3	Today on Forbes, meet Bloomwell, the telehealth company growing Germany's $900 million
0:59.0	cannabis industry.
1:01.5	In September of 2020, in a small two-room doctor practice in Frankfurt, telemedicine company
1:07.6	Bloomwell had its first patient meet with a doctor to get a prescription
1:12.0	for marijuana. It would still be another four years until Germany would legalize marijuana
1:17.5	for medical and recreational use, and the process was arduous. Still classified as a narcotic
1:24.4	at the time, cannabis prescriptions had to be written on paper and delivered
1:29.2	to a pharmacist, which had to store the product in a safe.
1:33.5	Bloomwell had a team of about 25 couriers to pick up a script for overnight delivery
1:38.7	to a pharmacy, and once filled, it was sent via a secured courier. Within a week, the company's first patient
1:46.5	received their cannabis. Co-founder Julian Wickman says, quote, back then, it was just a website
	...

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