The California healthcare startup, HealthLoop, approached Cara Waller, CEO of the Newport Orthopedic Institute in Newport Beach, with their online tool which they said could get patients more engaged in their orthopedic care by "automating" physician empathy.

It "almost made me nauseous," Waller said. “How can you automate something as deeply personal as empathy?”

But, with Newport Orthopedic Institute’s surgeons are performing as many as 500 orthopedic surgeries a year, she could see the need for better communication and the ability to track the progress of patients after surgery.

The HealthLoop platform allows our orthopedic surgeons to regularly check-in on their patients through digital check-ins that arrive at the right time during the patient’s recovery to provide specific guidance, reminders and educational materials that are all specific to the condition and treatment provided. Commonly asked clinical questions are available to help patients find answers to their questions quickly and easily.

Best of all, the HealthLoop tool helps to keep our patients on-track to getting back to their normal life. But, should any clinical concerns arise, the tool allows patients to communicate with their orthopedic surgeons to get extra hand-holding and early detection to help prevent re-admissions to the hospital.

So far, Waller has been pleasantly surprised by Newport Orthopedic Institute’s patients' enthusiasm for the personalized — but automated — daily emails they receive from their orthopedic doctor.

Newport Orthopedic Institute and HealthLoop were featured in a CNN Health article. To read the full story, click here.