In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.
The storm led to a collapse of the island’s healthcare system, a 2021 study reported, following power outages and a lack of disaster management plans that contributed to 3,000+ deaths. KFF reported in 2017 that Puerto Ricans living on the island already had low access to healthcare before the hurricane hit. Years after the storm, the region faced ongoing staffing shortages and issues with federal funding that restricted care, according to CBS News.
That’s why, in October 2017, Emmanuel Oquendo and Israel Figueroa founded BrainHi, a health tech company with an AI receptionist called Lara, which completes administrative tasks for providers. The tool can answer missed calls and schedule appointments, and is designed to reduce clinicians’ workloads. Some of the company’s clients include NeoMed Center, Ashford Hospital, Manatí Medical Center, and Mennonite Healthcare System, all based in Puerto Rico.
Oquendo spoke with Healthcare Brew about his goals for the company going forward.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Do you solely serve Puerto Rico at the moment? Are you looking to expand?
When we launched, we were very focused on that critical moment in Puerto Rico [after Hurricane Maria], and how we can help our island and providers.
Rural areas face a unique challenge, just like Puerto Rico, where the staff is often overwhelmed by daily demand, and they’re not able to serve all the patients. So what we found is that Puerto Rico is not the only place in the US that may find these sorts of issues and may need automation. Puerto Rico remains to be the core of our company, but we work with health centers in Florida and in other places in other parts of the US.
You introduced AI for administrative tasks before its current rise in popularity. What have you learned from this experience?
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We’ve been working nearly a decade on this.
We’re not only focused on the AI component but we offer a full digital front-door platform that serves as a host for all the communication that is happening, and it facilitates and streamlines a collaboration between AI and the human side. That’s what’s given us a great advantage as we expand now and accelerate growth because now that we are gaining a ton of traction and there’s more eyeballs on AI, we’re ready for this. We’re ready—not only with the technology, but we deeply understand the workflows and the integrations that are required to really make the AI shine in a healthcare environment.
What separates AI receptionist Lara and BrainHi from your competitors?
In addition to the comprehensive platform, we stand out in a crowded place of well-funded startups because we’re looking beyond transactional interactions. Our focus is on building a trusted, long-term relationship between the AI and patients because we believe that the next frontier for AI is to create human connection at scale.
Let’s say that Lara has a call with a patient. As soon as we get that first call, we start creating a profile on that patient that goes far beyond what is documented in the electronic health record.
What we found is that getting all these personal notes about the patient and understanding what they need allows us to personalize that relationship much more. We still believe that AI is not there yet in terms of being completely human, if you will. But by being very diligent on understanding the patient’s needs, understanding their preferences, actively listening to the patient, and taking notes on the conversation, we’ve seen that it greatly impacts engagement.