By Jed Morley

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Eric Race is the Founder and CEO of Atlas Mobility, a healthcare technology company headquartered in Miami, FL and San Francisco, CA. Atlas improves mobility, safety, and patient outcomes inside hospitals across the United States. Over the past decade, Eric has built Atlas from the ground up into a nationally deployed clinical operations company and FDA-registered medical device organization with approximately 400 employees nationwide. The company partners with leading health systems to reduce workplace injuries, standardize safe patient movement, and modernize frontline clinical operations.

Eric’s foundation comes from the emergency response field. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he served as a Stockton firefighter, paramedic, and rescue instructor. He responded to 911 calls, worked in a Level 1 trauma center, and trained teams in high-risk technical rescue. These frontline experiences shaped his leadership philosophy: disciplined under pressure, grounded in real-world safety, and committed to building systems that protect both patients and caregivers.That commitment led to the creation of Atlas Mobility. Under Eric’s leadership, the company has deployed hospital workforce safety programs nationwide, developed an FDA-registered medical device, contributed to national safety initiatives including NPIAP and the American Nurses Association, and helped some of the largest U.S. health systems redesign how care teams mobilize patients.

Today, Eric is expanding his focus toward the next era of healthcare innovation — integrating mobility, artificial intelligence, and robotics into clinical environments. He believes hospitals are entering a transformative period defined by mobile technology, AI-enabled systems, autonomous support tools, and eventually advanced robotic assistance. His goal is to ensure these technologies are implemented safely, intelligently, and in ways that enhance the human experience for both patients and frontline caregivers.

We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company

Eric Race: I’m the CEO and Founder of Atlas Mobility, a healthcare service and technology company focused on helping hospitals improve patient safety through better mobility practices. Earlier in my career, I worked as a paramedic and firefighter, which gave me a firsthand view of how critical safe patient handling and movement are for both patient outcomes and caregiver safety. Atlas Mobility partners with hospitals to reduce preventable harm such as pressure injuries while also helping reduce caregiver injury related to patient mobility. The approach combines three elements: people support, monitoring technology, and actionable data. Mobility technicians work directly on hospital units to support nursing teams, bedside monitoring technology tracks patient movement and positioning, and the analytics platform helps hospitals measure and improve performance over time. This unique combination drives our mission to enhance patient safety while protecting the people who care for patients.

If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?

Eric Race: If I were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, I would probably start by saying Atlas Mobility solves a major healthcare problem that many people do not realize exists. Each year, more than 60,000 patients die from complications related to pressure injuries, and nurses experience some of the highest rates of musculoskeletal injury due to manual patient handling. Atlas Mobility helps hospitals reduce both risks by ensuring patients are moved and repositioned safely and consistently. The program combines human expertise, monitoring technology, and data to support care teams at the bedside and improve mobility practices across the hospital. The company’s greatest strength is helping hospitals integrate safe mobility into daily clinical workflows so patients experience better outcomes and caregivers are protected while delivering care.

Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?

Eric Race: In healthcare, people want to feel that their work has meaning and impact. When employees clearly see how their work improves patient care or helps their colleagues, engagement tends to follow. Many members of the Atlas Mobility team work directly inside hospitals supporting frontline caregivers. They regularly see how helping a patient move safely or preventing an injury can change someone’s recovery. That connection to outcomes is highly motivating. Employee recognition has also become a stronger focus across the organization. Team members are recognized when they reach important milestones and achievements, and the impact of their work inside hospitals is regularly highlighted. Recognition helps reinforce that each person plays a role in a larger movement to improve safety in healthcare.

Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?

Eric Race: Healthcare will continue to become more digitally connected. At the same time, patient care still happens at the bedside, which means technology must support real clinical environments. The monitoring technology used by Atlas Mobility was designed to extend visibility into patient mobility even when care staff are not physically present in the room. The system captures information about patient position, so care teams have insight into whether mobility practices are happening adequately and consistently. The software platform also allows leaders and clinical teams to access mobility and safety data from virtually anywhere in the hospital. Even when leaders are not physically on the unit, they can review program performance and identify opportunities for improvement. This combination of bedside monitoring and accessible data strengthens coordination across teams and locations.

Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?

Eric Race: One of the biggest challenges in healthcare is the speed at which meaningful change happens. Research often suggests that it can take close to seventeen years for proven practices to become widely adopted in healthcare settings. That timeline creates serious consequences when preventable harm continues to occur. Patients develop pressure injuries, and caregivers experience musculoskeletal injuries related to patient handling. Healthcare organizations care deeply about safety, yet the system itself moves slowly because of competing priorities, complex decision processes, and resource constraints. Accelerating the adoption of proven solutions remains a critical challenge. Hospitals that prioritize faster implementation of safety improvements will have a significant impact on both patient outcomes and caregiver protection.

In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?

Eric Race: Within healthcare, one of the most underestimated aspects is the complexity involved in bringing a new solution into a hospital environment. For instance, before a medical device can be implemented, it typically goes through regulatory, clinical, and legal review processes. Once introduced, it often moves through committee discussions that involve clinical leaders, safety teams, finance departments, procurement teams, and other stakeholders. Every hospital also operates with its own workflows, leadership structures, and operational priorities. Solutions often require thoughtful adaptation in order to work effectively within each organization. A significant amount of effort therefore happens behind the scenes to navigate approvals, processes, and logistics before a program can ultimately benefit patients.

On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?

Eric Race: The ability to be everywhere at once would be incredibly valuable. My experience as a paramedic and firefighter reinforced the importance of being present on the front lines. Direct interaction with patients and the teams caring for them provides insights that are difficult to gain from a distance. Seeing what is happening inside hospitals across many locations at the same time would provide a deeper understanding of daily challenges. That perspective would help guide the development of solutions that truly meet the needs of both caregivers and patients.

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