Meet Rita: Humanate’s AI Front Desk Agent Transforming Patient Care
How AI is reducing administrative burden and improving patient experience in the Rio Grande Valley
When patients walk into the Valley Diabetes & Endocrinology Comprehensive Center in Weslaco this month, they’re greeted by something new — an artificial intelligence-powered agent avatar named Rita. Developed by College Station-based startup Humanate Digital, Rita is not just another chatbot. She represents a new era of patient-centered care, designed to reduce administrative burden while keeping the human touch at the heart of every interaction.
Who is Rita?
Rita stands in the waiting room connected to a camera, a high-powered computer, and a card scanner. She can verify insurance, accept payment, and answer procedural questions, all without a single staff member needed. What makes her truly remarkable is her ability to communicate in 100 languages, read facial expressions to gauge a patient’s mood, and seamlessly update a single electronic health record with every visit. All information is stored in a fully HIPAA-compliant manner.
Curious about how Rita works in real life? Watch Humanate Digital CEO Carlos Rodriguez walk you through a live demonstration of Rita’s capabilities:
The Story Behind Rita
Rita was born out of a very real challenge facing private medical practices today. Dr. Eduardo “Dusty” Luna, an endocrinologist and partner at Valley Diabetes & Endocrinology Comprehensive Center, reached out to Humanate Digital after seeing firsthand how administrative overload was affecting his team.
“There’s always the struggle of running a private practice; ultimately, you want to be able to help as many people as you can. But you have so many phone calls coming in, in the front office and the back office, and then paperwork. We wanted to bridge that gap and find a solution,” Dr. Luna shared.
Since joining the practice six years ago, Dr. Luna has seen it grow from a handful of employees to over 50 staff members across three locations in Weslaco, Mission, and Edinburg, with plans to continue expanding.
More than a Front Desk Agent
Rita doesn’t stop at check-in. Behind the scenes, she handles insurance pre-authorization claims and appeals, calls patients to walk them through upcoming procedures, and answers common questions about referrals and medication refills. She also combs through thousands of pages of medical records in seconds, summarizing key milestones so physicians can focus on what they do best: caring for patients.
“The fact that she can read so many pages in a fraction of a second, to be able to synthesize them and allow me to use my human innate ability to deduce what I need to do next, that’s where you get this beautiful synergy,” Dr. Luna said.
Importantly, Rita is programmed never to offer medical advice or make up information, addressing the common concern of AI hallucinations in healthcare settings.
Dr. Luna shares more about his experience integrating Rita into his practice and what this means for the future of healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley:
A Vision for the Future
Humanate Digital, led by CEO Carlos Rodriguez and spun out of Texas A&M, has already raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding and is eyeing up to $10 million in its upcoming Series A round. Rodriguez sees enormous potential for Rita in rural healthcare communities across Texas and beyond, particularly given the $50 billion federal fund available for rural healthcare transformation.
“I say that AI is not going to replace people, it’s going to augment what people can do,” Rodriguez said.
Rita is already proving that point. For every 10 patients in line, she can independently check in about 8 of them, routing the more complex cases to human staff who can give them the attention they need.
Rita isn’t here to replace the people who make healthcare human. She’s here to give them back the time, energy, and focus to do their jobs at their very best, one patient at a time.
To learn more about Humanate Digital and Rita, visit http://humanate.ai
Read the full story here: Rio Grande Valley Business Journal