A startup called Robin Healthcare has received $15 million in funding to expand usage of its digital assistant service that it says leverages human and artificial intelligence (AI) to free physicians from paperwork.
Robin said its platform addresses the burden doctors face to complete clinical documentation and administrative work, noting that the average physician now spends two hours on paperwork and screen time for every hour of patient care. It says the resulting documentation is not ideal for patient care. It is frequently riddled with errors and warped to serve insurance and regulatory requirements rather than to help doctors take care of patients.
The Robin Assistant device, placed in the exam room, writes fully billable clinical notes based on audio and optional video of a physician's interaction with patients. Using ambient conversational speech recognition, Robin works without wake words, specialized vocabulary, dictation, or other workflow changes. The platform blends AI technology with quality assurance by trained healthcare staff to produce doctors' notes, integrating directly with electronic medical records and securing all patient data with end-to-end encryption. Physicians review and sign their notes.
In addition to the funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, Berkeley, Calif.-based Robin Health announced partnerships with several academic and private medical practices across the United States:
• Camellia ENT, an otolaryngology practice in Louisiana;
• Campbell Clinic, a large academic surgery practice in Tennessee;
• Central Coast Orthopedic Medical Group, a large practice in California;
• Duke University Medical Center's Private Diagnostic Clinic, the independent, multi-specialty physician practice of Duke Health;
• Muir Orthopaedic Specialists, a large practice in Northern California;
• Orthopedic Associates P.A., a practice group in New Mexico;
• Peak Orthopedics & Spine, a division of Orthopedic Centers of Colorado;
• University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, an academic health system in California; and
• Webster Orthopedics, a large practice in Northern California.
Robin also named Tom Gruber, co-founder and former chief technology officer of Siri, as a formal advisor Gruber was co-founder, CTO, and head of design for the team that created Siri, the intelligent assistant. At Apple for more than eight years, he led the Advanced Development Group that designed and prototyped new capabilities for Siri and related products that bring intelligence to the interface.
