San Jose, California-based telehealth company VSee Health and Ava Robotics, creator of intelligent robots for the workplace, announced a partnership to create an autonomous VSee-powered Ava robot for use in a hospital inpatient intensive care unit. 

VSee's SaaS platform, which allows clinicians and enterprises to create telehealth workflows, will power the robot. The robot will enable remote physicians to be at patients' bedside to deliver patient care in the ICU and work with onsite staff. 

"Not only will patients receive the best expertise available and better care, regardless of location, but hospitals will be able to deliver a new, heightened level of care, reducing transfers and costs associated with critical care and stroke," Dr. Imo Aisiku, co-CEO and chairman of VSee Health, said in a statement. 

"With the first commercial product launched in June, the Ava Robot is expected to be able to improve tele-stroke operations, and additional uses will be identified in the medical field as use of the Robot expands."

THE LARGER TREND

Numerous robotics companies are working to address staffing shortages in skilled labor seen throughout the care setting. 

Diligent Robotics is the maker of the autonomous clinical support robot Moxi, which performs delivery tasks for hospital workers that are not patient-facing, such as bringing supplies from central storage, delivering lab samples, getting patients' items, distributing personal protective equipment and moving lightweight equipment between units, and delivering medications.

Diligent launched in 2019 with $3 million in seed funding. A year later, it raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. 

In 2022, the company secured more than $30 million in Series B funding, and last year, it raised $25 million in new financing. 

Another company in the space is Movia, which is looking to use robots paired with software to help children with autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities learn new skills. 

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