Lahey Hospital & Medical Center has become the first hospital in the United States to implement the ALTA Platform®, a robotic patient handling system developed by Able Innovations. The deployment marks a significant milestone for the Lahey Innovation Hub and signals a broader shift toward what the industry is beginning to call Physical AI — intelligent robotic systems designed to improve how care is physically delivered inside hospitals.
For decades, healthcare innovation has focused primarily on digitizing information: electronic medical records, clinical data systems, and digital workflows. Yet many of the most physically demanding tasks inside hospitals have remained largely unchanged. Patient transfers — moving individuals between beds, imaging tables, stretchers, and operating rooms — are among the most strenuous tasks frontline staff perform daily, contributing to musculoskeletal injuries, burnout, and operational inefficiencies.
The ALTA Platform® was built to address this directly. By combining robotics, intelligent motion systems, and caregiver-centered design, the platform enables a single staff member to safely perform lateral patient transfers across the acute-care setting. The result is reduced physical strain on clinical teams, improved comfort and dignity for patients, and measurable gains in operational efficiency.
The platform also carries environmental implications. Able Innovations estimates the ALTA Platform® could reduce greenhouse emissions by up to 90 percent compared to single-patient-use plastics over a 10-year period — directly supporting Lahey's sustainability goals.
This deployment reflects the Innovation Hub's commitment to identifying unmet clinical needs and accelerating high-impact technologies into practice. Lahey Hospital & Medical Center is a 400-bed Level I Trauma Center in Burlington, MA, part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, one of the largest health systems in the Northeast.
To read the full announcement, find the full press release here.
