As telehealth enters its post-pandemic adolescence, broader use cases dominate the landscape. And dr. Stephanie Lahr, president of Artisight, knows this landscape well.
Artisight is commercializing a “smart hospital” platform designed to capture accurate, real-time data to optimize operations, reduce costs and help physicians focus on delivering care. Virtual care is part of the story.
We interviewed Lahr to talk about how broader use cases benefit patients with more serious health conditions and overburdened healthcare providers; how AI-powered remote patient monitoring and virtual nursing can improve health outcomes, reduce burnout, and increase efficiency across the hospital environment; and, important for doctors and nurses experiencing burnout, how telemedicine can help bring the joy back to medicine.
Q. You suggest that broader applications of telemedicine will benefit patients with more serious health problems and overburdened healthcare providers. What are some of these applications and how does virtual care technology help?
A. Telemedicine has traditionally played a crucial role in inpatient care, particularly in bringing the expertise of specialist healthcare providers to patients who might not otherwise have access to it. This includes scenarios where a neurologist remotely evaluates the severity of a patient’s stroke, or an ICU specialist provides critical care guidance to a facility with limited or no 24/7 ICU physician coverage.
This opportunity to extend specialized knowledge to different healthcare settings has proven invaluable.
However, virtual care is evolving beyond these traditional applications. With all members of the healthcare team strained by the demands of patient care, the need to use technology to share the work is growing. Telehealth, with its established platforms and technologies, offers a promising opportunity to address these challenges in a more inclusive and democratized way.
Take virtual nursing, for example, which is reshaping the division of labor, allowing nurses to monitor and manage patient care remotely. With real-time access to electronic medical records and telemetry data, virtual nurses can provide timely advice and support to their in-person colleagues, improving patient care without the need for a physical presence.
Likewise, the scope of telehealth is now expanding to other healthcare professionals, such as respiratory therapists and pharmacists. Through telehealth, they can offer specialized consultations and education directly in patient rooms, without having to physically travel between different locations. This not only maximizes the efficient use of their expertise, but also reduces the time and logistical constraints associated with personal advice.
Advanced telehealth tools, equipped with high-quality cameras that have detailed zoom, pan and tilt functions, further expand these capabilities. Such technology allows specialists to perform thorough assessments and make recommendations by closely examining patient equipment and treatment settings remotely.
This level of detail supports informed decision-making and ensures expert guidance is readily available to healthcare providers at the bedside.
This shift to a more integrated and accessible care model via telehealth not only broadens the scope of virtual care, but also encourages a collaborative approach among healthcare providers. It invites the entire healthcare team to leverage the possibilities of telehealth to promote a collaborative approach to patient care.
As virtual care continues to evolve, it has the potential to redefine healthcare workflows, make specialty care more accessible and efficient, and ultimately improve patient outcomes in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.
Q. You go on to say that combining telemedicine with AI-powered remote patient monitoring and virtual nursing can help healthcare. Find out in detail how this can help.
A. The integration of telehealth with AI-powered remote patient monitoring and virtual nursing represents a significant leap forward in healthcare. The foundation of telehealth infrastructure – characterized by high-quality two-way audio/video interactions – requires robust technology components.
Devices such as advanced cameras, clear speakers/microphones, and monitors are critical for facilitating engaging conversations between patients and caregivers so that the person on the screen becomes a tangible presence in the room.
This technology foundation not only provides immediate value by improving the immediacy and quality of patient-provider interactions, but also sets the stage for a transformative shift in healthcare workflows. The incorporation of such technology into patient care environments paves the way for reshaping the division of labor between care teams – and optimizing care delivery.
In about five years, there will be a camera and a microphone in every patient room in a hospital – and that’s a good thing.
Integrating AI into this framework offers even more possibilities. Natural language processing and computer vision offer the potential to build on this foundation. By training AI algorithms in healthcare practice, it becomes possible to streamline and automate high-friction tasks that traditionally take up significant amounts of physicians’ time.
For example, AI can take over routine documentation and accurately record patient interactions and clinical observations without manual input from healthcare professionals. This automation extends to the communication of critical information, where AI algorithms can efficiently communicate important updates and coordinate healthcare activities, reducing the likelihood of errors and delays.
By using AI in combination with telehealth technology, healthcare providers can significantly reduce the administrative burden often associated with patient care. This shift allows physicians to shift their focus to more direct interactions with patients, improving the quality of care and improving patient outcomes.
The combination of telehealth and AI represents a progressive approach to healthcare, where technology not only facilitates but actively enhances the human aspects of patient care, making healthcare more efficient, accessible and patient-focused.
Q. And you believe this broader use of telemedicine can help overburdened physicians regain the joy of medicine while improving access to care. How will this happen?
A. I have never met a doctor or nurse who said patient care was the reason they were leaving the profession. It’s the overwhelming administrative tasks that lead to burnout.
The promise of telehealth, complemented by advanced technologies, has the potential to reinvigorate medicine, bringing joy and fulfillment back to physicians who are overwhelmed by today’s demands.
The essence of healthcare – the intimate and impactful interactions between patients and their caregivers – is being overshadowed by an ever-growing list of support tasks. Physicians are tasked with extensive documentation, communicating findings to various stakeholders, and meticulously recording data, all of which can detract from the core of their work: patient care.
The cumulative weight of the additional responsibilities that caregivers are saddled with is the cause of burnout. The feeling that there is always ‘one more task’ can be very demotivating, as it creates a barrier between the doctor and the patient. Not only does the quality of care decrease, but the doctors’ sense of purpose and satisfaction in their work is also eroded.
By using virtual care strategically, we can significantly reduce these burdens. Automating documentation, streamlining communications and efficiently managing patient data can free physicians from the shackles of administrative overload.
This liberation allows them to focus on what drew them to medicine in the first place: the direct care of patients, the passion for diagnosing and treating disease, and the rewarding relationships they build with those they help .
Because we enable physicians to focus more on bedside care and less on bureaucratic tasks, we not only increase their professional satisfaction but also improve patient access to care. By optimizing the use of physicians’ time and expertise, telehealth can enable more interactions with patients, reduce wait times, and expand the reach of healthcare services, especially in underserved areas.
The broader adoption of telehealth and related technologies can transform healthcare. It offers physicians a way to restore the joy of medicine, ensuring that their work is defined by the meaningful connections and crucial decisions that impact patients’ lives, rather than the amount of administrative work they are required to do each time. awaits again.
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