It's no secret that treating patients with COVID-19 is a major challenge, with limited resources and overworked staff trying to treat the most critical patients. Less well understood, however, is the need for early identification of patients with concerning medical conditions who therefore could likely become more acute, which in turn forces quick decisions.
Traditionally it can take days to get the needed information from other providers through faxes or phone calls. Emergency rooms, urgent care centers, specialty providers, telehealth providers, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), durable medical equipment (DME) companies, and others across the care continuum are all struggling with access to needed patient data.
Patients are also concerned and want to check their symptoms to better assess if they are sick enough to get tested or head to emergency. Some states are also urging patients to check with their primary care providers before going to overburdened health systems.
There are a number of healthcare technology companies that are offering no-charge solutions to help alleviate some of these concerns.
Information retrieval
Consensus (a sister company to MedPage Today) is among those providing quick on-demand patient record retrieval for patient data through the Carequality framework. This information, such as past conditions or treatments and current medications and labs, can provide more insight and enable a care team to triage patients more accurately with this lifesaving information. With Consensus, healthcare providers only need an internet connection to get access to an easy inbox-like interface so they can fill out a demographic form to request data. The information is retrieved within seconds. This solution is offered at no charge to any of the technology vendors that are connected to Carequality.
Telehealth
The use of telehealth is surging during the pandemic as it helps bridge the gap between people, physicians, and health systems, enabling everyone, especially symptomatic patients, to stay at home and communicate with physicians through virtual channels, helping to reduce the spread of the virus to mass populations and the medical staff on the front lines. A number of companies are offering free telehealth during the crisis.
Bluestream is providing a free, HIPAA-compliant virtual care solution to help care providers work with patients impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. In-browser, secure visits can be started almost immediately with no setup or downloads to help healthcare providers easily engage with patients remotely. The solution can be used by clinicians, assisted living and elderly care, as well as skilled nursing care.
VitalTech, a leader in virtual care, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring, announced a collaboration with AT&T Business. They are offering 60 days of free telehealth services through the VitalCare platform to business customers such as hospitals to support their physicians and patients.
Patient self-checks
Symptom checkers are becoming more valuable for patients who want to do a self-assessment before going to urgent care or emergency departments. Many states and the CDC are urging patients to seek testing only if certain symptoms have occurred, because facilities only have a limited supply of tests and emergency centers are already understaffed and overburdened with the patient load.
Amazon Alexa users in the U.S. can now use the voice assistant as a first step towards diagnosing cases of COVID-19. Amazon has collected COVID-19 Alexa resources and queries, such as "Alexa, what do I do if I think I have coronavirus?" or "Alexa, what do I do if I think I have COVID-19?" The voice assistant will then ask about symptoms, travel history, and possible exposure to the virus. It will then offer advice based on official CDC information.
The GYANT COVID-19 Emergency Response Assistant uses its own artificial-intelligence interface to check for COVID-19 symptoms and pertinent risk factors, then navigates patients to appropriate health system resources and care settings. The tool educates patients by providing general information on symptoms, prevention, and preparedness, and answering common questions about COVID-19.
Vivify Health has developed COVID-19 screening, self-isolation, and monitoring pathway for its +Go mobile solution. The screening pathway enables low-risk patients or those with mild symptoms to use their mobile devices to self-screen for COVID-19 by answering a series of questions that follow current CDC guidelines and helps providers by reducing the potential for an onslaught of concerned clients/patients descending on one facility.
Bevey Miner is managing partner at HatchEvo, a business development, strategy, and marketing consulting firm.