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To help reduce fall risks and other safety concerns in hospitalised patients, Emory Healthcare is collaborating with Andor Health to bring virtual patient observer technology to its hospitals. The inpatient monitoring technology will provide an added layer of safety interventions for patients who need additional supervision and care.
Objectives of the Collaboration
Andor Health developed ThinkAndor to empower care teams with relevant clinical content.
Furthermore, ThinkAndor utilises generative AI technology to access and analyse data from different systems, such as ambient listening and real-time visualisation. This enables the detection of prevalent safety concerns like falls, self-harm, and elopement.
Emory Healthcare will begin piloting the virtual sitter technology this month at two of its hospitals, remotely monitoring at-risk patients on medical and surgical floors and in the emergency departments. With hospitals across the country still facing staffing shortages, the technology allows for AI enablement to observe patients, so team members can return to other direct patient care roles.
“Andor Health’s virtual patient observer/virtual sitter technology expands our virtual health initiatives across Emory Healthcare while reducing the burden of nurses and other team members,” said Jason Atkins, a vice president and chief clinical informatics officer for Emory Digital. “Currently, Emory nursing assistants, nurse technicians. or other team members serve as patient sitters for some of our hospitalised patients.”
Additionally, Andor Health’s virtual observers have collaborated with registered nurses in a control centre, utilising voice activation technology to remotely communicate with at-risk patients. They remind patients to stay in bed, call for assistance, or offer guidance as needed. The virtual observers also promptly notify Emory Healthcare staff on-site about any safety concerns. These monitoring services are available round-the-clock.
Transforming Clinical Paradigms with AI
“Fundamentally, we have a shared vision of how we can transform clinical paradigms with the latest innovation in AI and virtual collaboration experiences,” said Raj Toleti, a chairman and CEO of Andor Health. “Advances in new technologies like generative AI-based virtual sitting and ambient monitoring open opportunities to reduce operational burdens, staff shortages, and costs while allowing the health system to focus on delivering quality care. Progressive health systems like Emory Healthcare can leverage virtual hospital capabilities such as virtual sitting at scale to effectively observe patients while optimising staff with this additional support.”
Emory Healthcare has partnered with Andor Health to implement virtual patient observer/virtual sitter technology in 32 inpatient rooms within the first year of collaboration. The plan is to expand this technology to an additional 50 rooms in the second year.
“We are on a mission to adopt digital innovation and high-tech solutions to assist us in providing safe, quality care to our patients,” said Alistair Erskine, a chief information and digital officer for Emory Healthcare. “This collaboration enhances our inpatient monitoring resources at Emory by leveraging virtual and AI capabilities to support the best patient outcomes.”
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