Norbert in 2024 — Delivering the AI Health Hub
A triple crisis has hit healthcare systems worldwide: severe labor shortages, rising costs, in part due to an increasingly aging population, and lingering inefficiencies across the board. By 2030, we will face a critical shortfall of 40% of healthcare workers worldwide. In short, there are more, older patients to take care of with fewer resources, at higher costs. This perfect storm of issues requires new solutions, soon.
Recent progress in AI, spearheaded in part by Norbert, opened the path towards AI-powered healthcare automation. It offers the promise to automate daily, time consuming tasks of healthcare workers: simple mobility or cognitive assessments, vitals scanning, schedule reminders. Since it is automated and does not require personnel, this part of healthcare can be performed from the familiar and comfortable surroundings of homes. It is a transformative force that could solve the healthcare systemic crisis by offering advanced, automated care solutions that can alleviate the burden on healthcare professionals while enhancing patient outcome and happiness.
It is not just about technology. It represents an essential move towards care models that are more sustainable and equally accessible and comfortable for patients, wherever they are, whatever their economic backgrounds.
There is another angle to the story. The past decade or two have seen a proliferation of smart devices for your home. Yours truly was the head of AI at Arlo, one of those companies. But their impact on daily life remains limited, and they failed at achieving the goal of creating recurring interactions and sticky products that home dwellers would use repeatedly. Alexa has lost $10bn in 2022. Smart routers and smart refrigerators are just routers and refrigerators.
An AI health hub at home, on the other hand, is critical. Health is a critical and important topic for many people in their daily life. A health hub for the home that seamlessly supports each person uniquely and naturally is the missing link that we’ve been searching for. This device has the potential to be in every home and setting , and generate focused, recurring and natural interactions from billions of people, while solving massive population health issues. Tech companies, or venture capitalist backed startups like us, will not miss out on this opportunity.
Norbert is the first device of its kind to embody this transformation. Norbert was designed as a consumer grade device that integrates into the home environment seamlessly — easy to set up, functional and beautiful form factor. Norbert offers a unique range of AI powered services: vital signs scanning, medication reminders, activity assessment, cognitive assessments. All tailored to the individual needs of each user. Norbert’s onboard gen AI chat bot improves health engagement and helps patients follow their schedule.
The team behind Norbert has decades of experience and top tier experts in technology, AI, consumer electronics and healthcare. And some true AI pioneers. We have been working over the past four years to bring this vision to life. Achievements such as the development of medical grade, contactless vitals monitoring through sophisticated engineering and AI are a testament to what’s possible. Looking ahead, the team is focused on expanding Norbert’s capabilities to encompass mental health, mobility, fall prevention, and more, all within one natural interaction hub.
We will ship our first AI health hubs this year. Stay tuned for more details on our channels.
