The Mabu robot, with its small yellow body and friendly expression, serves, literally, as the face of the care management startup Catalia Health. The most innovative part of the company's solution, however, lies behind Mabu's large blue eyes. Catalia Health's software incorporates expertise in psychology, artificial intelligence, and medical treatment plans to help patients manage their chronic conditions. The result is a sophisticated robot companion that uses daily conversations to give patients tips, medication reminders, and information on their condition while relaying relevant data to care providers. The information exchange can also take place on patients' mobile phones.

Catalia Health and Pfizer today announced they have launched a pilot program to explore patient behaviors outside of clinical environments and to test the impact regular engagement with artificial intelligence (AI) has on patients' treatment journeys. The 12-month pilot uses the Mabu Wellness Coach, a robot that uses artificial intelligence to gather insights into symptom management and medication adherence trends in select patients. The Mabu robot can interact with patients using AI algorithms to engage in tailored, voice-based conversations. Mabu "talks" with patients about how they are feeling and helps answer questions they may have about their treatment. The Mabu Care Insights Platform then delivers detailed data and insights to clinicians at a specialty pharmacy provider to help human caregivers initiate timely and appropriate outreach to the patient.

Mike Salem from Udacity's Robotics Nanodegree is hosting a series of interviews with professional roboticists as part of their free online material. Dr. Kidd is focused on innovating within the rapidly changing healthcare technology market. He is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a company that delivers patient engagement across a variety of chronic conditions. You can find all the interviews here. We'll be posting them regularly on Robohub.