Robin Healthcare Launches from Stealth Mode with Elegant Approach to Patient Documentation Leveraging Both Human and Artificial Intelligence to Address Physicians' Largest Pain Point of Practice
BERKELEY, Calif., May 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Robin Healthcare, Inc., a health-technology company providing a smart assistant device that frees physicians to focus on the patient, today announced its launch from stealth mode with nationwide availability. The company has developed a HIPAA-compliant device that sits in the clinic room and elegantly leverages both human and artificial intelligence (A.I.) to consistently produce fully billable clinical notes addressing the biggest pain point for doctors today. Robin requires no special vocabulary or workflow changes from the physician to post documentation directly into the physician's electronic medical record (EMR). Robin has already completed documentation for tens of thousands of patient visits, allowing doctors to focus all their attention on the patient.
"In an effort to help the doctor, too often technology has only gotten in the way, adding more tasks, more training, more unmet expectations," said Noah Auerhahn, Co-Founder and CEO, Robin Healthcare. "We've built Robin to help physicians without interrupting care. Our clinical background gives us an appreciation for the complexity and nuance of medicine while our technical experience recognizes where today's A.I. can be assistive without letting it get in the way of the physician providing care. Doctors don't need to wear anything or use special words; utilizing a blend of human and machine intelligence, Robin doesn't simply reduce physician note burden, it eliminates it. All the while, our A.I. is learning from each clinical encounter to become a more capable assistant to our providers."
The modern-day practice of healthcare has become increasingly burdensome. The stats are bewildering. Physicians spend six hours a day on a computer. They have two hours of administrative tasks for every hour with patients. Not surprisingly, more than 50 percent of physicians today are experiencing burnout, the primary cause being documentation. The industry has thrown human beings at the problem with medical scribes and transcriptionists, as well as various types of software through EMRs and dictation via voice-to-text – all to no avail. The documentation burden has only grown.
While promising, voice assistants alone cannot yet replace a physician's clinical reasoning, and playing the wrong song is very different from prescribing the wrong medication. With a human in the loop, Robin today is training this cutting-edge A.I. while providing a HIPAA-compliant and easy-to-use device that allows physicians to seamlessly transition away from the computer and go back to practicing medicine.
"The real promise of Robin is its ability to help the people who are at the center of healthcare delivery. Physicians are finally relieved of tedious work without clicking, typing or repetitive dictating; patients receive the undivided attention their care deserves; administrators get consistent, detailed and accurate clinical documentation for reporting and billing; and, everyone stands to benefit from the standardized clinical information Robin is developing at its core," said Denis A. Cortese, MD, Foundation Professor and Director, Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program, Arizona State University; Emeritus President and CEO, Mayo Clinic.
Led by a team of repeat successful founders, Robin combines the deep clinical, industry and technical expertise required to solve this problem. Robin's CEO, Noah Auerhahn, previously founded technology and e-commerce company Extrabux, San Diego's fourth fastest-growing company when it was acquired by Ebates in 2013. Robin's President, Emilio Galan, previously founded HonestHealth, where he conducted health data analysis for the states of New York and California. He did clinical training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and has spent more than a decade working with large healthcare datasets. Robin's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kathleen Myers, has practiced medicine for more than 20 years and founded Essia Health, a 600-person scribe company that was acquired by Scribe America in 2015.
"Robin has been transformative. I've practiced through the rise of EMRs, the growing demands of documentation, and the proliferation of dictation and different note-taking services. These 'solutions' haven't really solved the problem and continue to get in the way of care," said Stephen J. Pinney, MD, Orthopedic surgeon, San Francisco Orthopedic Surgeons Medical Group. "With Robin, the device just sits on the table in my clinic rooms and I get to focus on my patients while Robin takes care of documentation without interrupting my practice. I'm happier and patients are getting better care – all the things we thought technology would bring to the practice of medicine."
"Robin has quickly spread across our practice as the physicians have seen the immediate relief from administrative work. Our physicians are happier, our patients love the uninterrupted care, and as a practice we get consistent, high-quality notes to expedite the billing process and maximize reimbursement. Robin should be the standard of modern day practice," said Karen Sollar, CEO, Webster Orthopedics and President, American Association of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE).
Robin has been operating in stealth since its founding in early 2017, offering its services exclusively in the Bay Area as it tuned the technology and prepared to scale its service with $3.5M Seed financing led by IA Ventures, Social Leverage and Meridian Street. Robin is now available nationwide for orthopedics and other surgical subspecialties, working toward a solution for every doctor across the country.
How Robin Works
Robin is placed in clinic rooms where it unobtrusively performs documentation based on the natural dialogue between the physician and patient. Clinical documentation is drafted without wake words, specialized vocabulary or dictation, or other workflow changes. Robin uses ambient Conversational Speech Recognition (CSR) with a robust quality assurance process by a trained workforce. Complete, fully billable clinical notes are submitted directly into the physicians' existing EMR where all they have to do is review and sign. Using military-grade encryption, all data are secured, and the service is completely compliant with HIPAA.
About Robin Healthcare
Based in Berkeley, CA and led by a team of repeat founders (e.g., Extrabux, Essia Health), Robin Healthcare combines deep clinical knowledge and technical expertise required to capture medicine's complexity, ensure the highest quality for patient care, and offer an affordable clinical documentation solution for every doctor. Robin's leadership team has clinical training at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Los Angeles, informatics and machine learning experience at Duke, and natural language processing training at UC Berkeley. Robin has assembled a world-class team of clinical, artificial intelligence and medical scribe industry experts to reinvent the practice of medicine. For more information, please visit www.robinhealthcare.com.
SOURCE Robin Healthcare, Inc.
Share this article