Health IT, Startups

Robin Healthcare comes out of stealth mode with AI tool for clinical documentation

The startup's tool sits in the exam room, and the doctor talks to the patient throughout the appointment. Afterward, the notes are sitting in the EMR waiting for the physician to review and sign.

A new startup, Robin Healthcare, has emerged from stealth mode in hopes of reducing physician burnout. Its device is an artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant doctors can use for clinical documentation.

The company’s HIPAA-compliant tool sits in a provider’s exam room, and patients consent to it being there. The doctor can carry on a conversation with the patient throughout the appointment.

“No dictation, no special words. They just talk to their patient,” Robin co-founder and CEO Noah Auerhahn said in a phone interview.

The documentation is then drafted using conversational speech recognition and a quality assurance process by a human workforce. After the encounter, the notes are sitting in the EMR waiting for the physician to review and sign. Robin co-founder and president Emilio Galan said the device currently interfaces with eight EHR systems.

Galan and Auerhahn founded the Berkeley, California-based startup in early 2017. Since then, it has secured $3.5 million in seed financing led by IA Ventures, Social Leverage and Meridian Street.

As for clients, the company has been primarily focused on entities working in orthopedics and other surgical subspecialties. Its customers include Webster Orthopedics and San Francisco Orthopedic Surgeons Medical Group.

Clients pay on a per clinic basis only when they use the service.

Robin Healthcare’s launch comes as voice assistants for clinical documentation are becoming increasingly popular.

Former Flipcart chief product officer Punit Soni co-founded Suki, which leverages artificial intelligence to power a voice assistant that helps doctors with clinical documentation. The startup has pilots within plastic surgery, internal medicine, ophthalmology and orthopedics practices in California and Georgia. Its tool is used across three EHR systems.

Notable launched at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas. The company’s technology is an app built for the Apple Watch. A physician can simply speak during the patient encounter, and the app records it. The microphone captures information even if the doctor’s wrist is down at his or her side. Data from the patient encounter is entered into the EMR.

When asked what sets Robin apart, Galan pointed to its simplicity.

“Whether an iPad, a watch or an earpiece you tap, these solutions are asking physicians to do something,” he said in a phone interview. “Ours is as simple as placing this device in the room. [Physicians] just walk into the room and start talking to it.”

He also noted that the Berkeley startup can document the simplest encounter as well as appointments with patients with complex care needs.

Photo: pixelliebe, Getty Images

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