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- [00:01]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Hospitals are chaotic, nurses rush around, doctors are sleep deprived, and patients and families are overwhelmed. Nothing really prepares you for what to expect, whether you're a patient or a medical caregiver. But in the age of rapidly evolving technologies, what are some solutions influencing the health industry? Can technology enhance the care, attention and service a hospital should provide? Different forms of technology like AI and advanced software programming are already making headway. We're witnessing the rise of the telehealth movement and the development of software and digital tools that can change how we view and experience a hospital stay. Things like tablets, screens on call services and customizable programs are giving patients more freedom in their health journey. In this episode, we'll be taking a closer look at how some tech innovations are shaping the way consumers, providers and caregivers are evolving healthcare for the better. From communication to comfort, these are the trends that are making healthcare feel less intimidating and more accommodating. I'm senior tech correspondent Samantha Murphy Kelly. This is the next innovation. You may have heard the term telehealth used interchangeably with telemedicine, but here's the distinction. Telemedicine involves using contemporary communication to deliver medical services directly to patients, like your smartphone or connecting with your tablet. Think virtual doctor visits. You can connect with your healthcare provider without leaving your home.
- [01:40]
Dr. Dale Alverson
Whereas telehealth includes telemedicine, but also the application of electronic communication technologies to public health, to patient and health professional education, to health administration. So really has a broader scope, but includes telemedicine. And thus we often will tend to use those terms interchangeably.
- [02:03]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
That's Dr. Dale Alverson, a physician based in New Mexico. Dale previously taught at the University of New Mexico School of medicine. For 40 years. He saw how telemedicine really changed the state's healthcare system. In a rural state like New Mexico, where healthcare access is limited, telemedicine became a game changer for many remote communities. It was a way to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers who might be hours away. It was the COVID 19 pandemic that made telehealth a global necessity. What was once a niche service suddenly became a worldwide lifeline.
- [02:38]
Dr. Dale Alverson
There was a real concern about patients coming in to be seen in person, concern for other patients that might be in the clinic or in the hospital, as well as concerns for the providers, the doctors, the nurses, the therapists being exposed. So then suddenly it became clear that using telemedicine and telehealth, you could provide services that never could have been provided before by using these technologies and avoid that in person contact that could lead to acquiring that terrible disease.
- [03:15]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
The pandemic was a turning point. It forced healthcare systems around the world to adopt digital solutions quickly. Telehealth became not just a convenience, but a critical resource for both patients and providers.
- [03:28]
Dr. Dale Alverson
That whole idea, the concept is that we share experiences and challenges with countries around the world. We've started doing that, and it's extremely valuable as we see some areas of the world have, have been very innovative in some of these advances and we can share that information and look at how they can be applied in our own environment. So I think we'll see more of this kind of global health interaction, which was also amplified through the pandemic.
- [03:57]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
So what does telehealth look like today? It's not just about video calls with your doctor anymore. Telehealth is expanding into areas like digital interactive devices and AI powered health monitoring. Ruth Reeder is a journalist at Politico who spent years covering these technologies. She's watched the health system transform from paper to digital.
- [04:17]
Ruth Reeder
I think technology has always been like a crucial tool in medicine, right? But I would say that we're getting into a really interesting new era of medical technology because now we are in the era of artificial intelligence. And that sort of changes a lot of things.
- [04:36]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
From smart devices that track your health in real time to AI that analyzes your symptoms and provides immediate guidance. Technology is making healthcare more personalized, efficient and accessible than ever before. Other tech innovations are spearheading a different kind of change. The patient experience can be notoriously emotional and lacking agency. But now some patients are getting new tools that give them access to educational materials, meal ordering, streaming entertainment services, and much more.
- [05:07]
Nikki Fetterman
This is the OneView patient experience platform. And what you'll see here is what a patient would see on a television or a tablet. And we deploy these on either little Samsung tablets or we have like a 22 inch device that we personally have built to meet our needs.
- [05:27]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Oneview is a patient experience system. That was Nikki Federman, the vice president of account management at OneView. She walked me through how their technology could really help change our experience at a hospital. Hospital.
- [05:39]
Nikki Fetterman
Okay, so oneview has multiple products. We, it's one, we call them modalities. We have the patient experience platform. So the first one is the digital door sign. So this is actually something that we mount outside of the patient door. And what it does is it allows the staff to see precautions about the patient prior to entering.
- [06:02]
Alyssa Gutcar
The goal is to put control back in the hands of the patient. Being in the hospital is A time when you can feel really out of control. And being able to empower yourself while you're there is a big win for our patients. So some of what patients can use this platform for is to learn more about their clinical care. They can see who's on their care team with pictures of their care team. This is really impactful, especially during those shift changes, to see who is caring for you right now. It also shows other clinical information, like your estimated discharge date, education about your care. It's fully integrated with our electronic health record. So if you're a patient who's coming in speaking Spanish, the platform will automatically appear in Spanish for you in that preferred language. So there's relaxation content that we offer. Movies, live tv, and it helps change the environment in a hospital room. Sometimes hospital rooms can be associated with beeping, and this can change the environment. When you have music on or you have relaxation content, you're looking at a landscape of Hawaii. It can change your feel and mood in your stay.
- [07:11]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
That was Alyssa Gutcar. She's an associate director of digital products at New York University Langone Health, a medical center in New York City. It started implementing OneView in 2018 as part of a custom system called MyWall, which works to improve the patient experience. It also supports the care team, giving them easy access to data and communication tools.
- [07:35]
Alyssa Gutcar
Some of the feedback. The most loved features that we hear about from patients are seeing their care team right from the home screen so that they can see easily who's caring for them, their name and their photo.
- [07:46]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
OneView's platform goes beyond entertainment. It's about simplifying the healthcare process. Customization is at the heart of the platform, whether it's language preferences, access to specialized resources, or personalized schedules.
- [08:00]
Alyssa Gutcar
Another innovation that we that we recently released was to give patients more visibility into their schedules while they're in the hospital. That was one of the main pain points that we heard when we talked to patients, was that they'd like to understand more about what's going to happen during their hospital stay. What does their schedule look like? And that helps them not only for setting their own expectations, but also for making sure that visitors come when they're going to be in the room and not out of the room.
- [08:28]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Some of telehealth's greatest success comes from pediatric facilities. It's tools like OneView that enable pediatric patients more freedom.
- [08:37]
Nikki Fetterman
We find that the kids pick up on this very quickly. Like most kiddos have a tablet nowadays, right? An iPad, something, and they're used to playing games on it. Watching videos. So when we, when we put them in the hospital and we say, hey, here's a tablet, they need very minimal orientation or prompting to start clicking around in there and, and finding all the cool things.
- [08:58]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Jerry Fuchock is the Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Children's Nebraska Hospital. He led the campaign of implementing OneView's technology for pediatric patients, and the result has been a game changer both for patients and families. When I spoke to him, he said the patient experience in pediatrics was an important area that most people overlook. In fact, he said only 2% of healthcare innovation funding is dedicated to young patients.
- [09:25]
Jerry Fuchok
That's why this is so important to us, because that's an alarming statistic to us. If we can intervene early and often with innovative technologies that advance pediatric care and outcomes, we're helping to set these kids up for better health in adulthood.
- [09:42]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
At Children's Nebraska, OneView's technology is tailored specifically to kids. It offers bright, fun and interactive designs to help make the hospital experience less intimidating.
- [09:53]
Nikki Fetterman
You know, it's hard to make healthcare fun for kids, but it's a softer of a font. Each section is colored in it, you know, highlighted around in a different color. But we also have the ability to show an image. So we have some standard images they can select from. And in this image, which is kind of astronaut in outer space, you'll see that during the day hours, they're awake and they're, they're exploring, and at night they're sleeping.
- [10:18]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Vuchak believes the impact goes beyond the child.
- [10:21]
Jerry Fuchok
The child can play a game on a tablet at the bedside while the family is watching a movie on the TV on the footwall, for example. So it allows that ability to have two things going on in the room at the same time. And that's been a real win for our patients and families and great feedback that we've gotten to have that granular functionality.
- [10:48]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
At Children's Nebraska, OneView's tech can cut wait times by over 80%. It helps nurses focus on bigger responsibilities and ensures patients are more accommodated.
- [10:59]
Jerry Fuchok
Now, what happens is if a patient wants water or a pillow, they can go into oneview and put that service request. They can select that on the screen, and that service request goes to their primary nurse. And if the primary nurse can't satisfy that request in 10 minutes, it rolls to a secondary nurse on the unit. And if that nurse doesn't fulfill that request, so after 20 minutes, it goes to the unit manager. And so we were able to facilitate those requests occurring much more quickly and on Average, those service requests are being fulfilled within 12 minutes, which is a great standard to have where we were getting feedback before that. That could take up to 40, 45 minutes for that to happen.
- [11:51]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
In traditional health care settings, communication can feel disconnected, isolating and impersonal. But with the integration of devices, patients can communicate directly with family members and healthcare providers.
- [12:03]
Unnamed Expert
And the beauty of a telemedicine telehealth solution is it's not bounded by the typical workday you can obtain using telemedicine care 24,7 if the structure is set up well. And that, as I said, is going to be really important because now we have the means of taking the patient, the empowered patient, using generative AI, and bring to them expertise, bring to them the ability of a small number of individuals to oversee a large group of patients, to be able to get them the help that they need, provide the advice, advice. And we've now greatly expanded the medical care we can provide.
- [12:49]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
These tools don't just facilitate communication between patients and doctors. They make the entire experience easier to navigate and understand. Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to understanding your health. Rather than overwhelm patients with paperwork, OneView gives them access to educational content like diagnostic briefs and videos that summarize a health condition. Patients can then access these interactive media files at their leisure.
- [13:15]
Nikki Fetterman
If you've ever been admitted, you know, you get a folder with a bunch of papers in it, and we know the reality is that nine times out of 10, they're not really looking at that. And so they just kind of get packed away and off they go. That's a big cost to the hospital from a printing perspective. But also, you know, so many hospitals have digital innovation initiatives, but also patients, you know, they want to just be able to go to their tablet or go to their phone and see what they want to see. So we take and digitize those packets so that the patients can pull them up here on their phone or on their tablet or their television.
- [13:52]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
With this simple direct access, patients are increasingly empowered to understand their condition and treatment, making them more likely to adhere to their care plans. Telehealth is shifting the focus from clinician centered tech to patient centered tools.
- [14:07]
Unnamed Expert
Because if you look at technology up to this point, just about all of it has been designed around the needs of the clinician. There have been ways to allow the clinician to make a better diagnosis, the clinician to figure out a better treatment, the clinician to do an intervention. And for the first time, what generative AI does is it empowers the patient, it Creates not just knowledge, expertise.
- [14:37]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Doctors and nurses can quickly access and update patient records, reducing the time spent on paperwork and tedious tasks.
- [14:45]
Nikki Fetterman
So it not only is, I think, a better experience for the patient, but is also really helpful for the staff because it's. If the patient is engaging with their tablet or their television, they could be doing this somewhat independently of the staff, saving them time. And then the nurse can come in and do what they call teach back, which is where they are verifying that the patient understood the content. Maybe they're asking them a couple questions to say, now that you watch this video about diabetes, what should your blood sugar range be? Or what are our goal for you, for your diet? Changing at home, things that show comprehension.
- [15:22]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
The promise of telehealth and digital tools like OneView is that they allow for smarter, more responsive healthcare. This potentially means faster treatment and better health outcomes for everyone.
- [15:33]
Ruth Reeder
Doctors have to give care. They have to interface with the patient. Like, you only get, like, 15 minutes with your doctor, right? At the same time, doctors have to, like, write down everything that's happening in that meeting. They have to, you know, and they have to make sure that they get it right. And that's really hard. A lot of doctors spend inordinate amounts of time that they call pajama time after work, just, like, rewriting, like, okay, what happened in that session? Let me take that down now and make sure that my notes are all correct. And so some health systems are experimenting with AI note takers. So just an AI that can write down what's happening in the session and so that the doctor later can go back over and say, like, okay, did they get this? All right?
- [16:17]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Telehealth isn't just a trend. It's a transformation that's here to stay. And technologies like OneView are a leader in the field transforming how healthcare is delivered and experienced.
- [16:29]
Unnamed Expert
So I'd say telemedicine completely, not just inside the hospital, but surrounds that whole hospital experience. And again, I'll go back to the same thing I said earlier. American medicine is fragmented. You have a hospital and you have an outpatient, and those two parts often don't communicate with each other because there's no good way to do it. Telemedicine closes that gap, that chasm that exists.
- [16:55]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Telehealth is poised to revolutionize health care by making it more flexible and efficient, regardless of where you live.
- [17:01]
Nikki Fetterman
At certain key points of that hospitalization, the more points, such as admission, discharge, planning, key conversations, in the midst of it, the patient's outcomes improve and their return to hospital rates, for example, would go down. So that is a standard published study just in using interpreter services, not necessarily about oneview. But if oneview is bringing that interpreter to the bedside more often, we can't help but expect that those outcomes would improve even more so for that patient.
- [17:36]
Dr. Dale Alverson
These are global issues and we're finding more and more interest in adoption and development of telehealth around the world. And I've had the opportunity to work with many countries. It's clear, particularly since the pandemic, that there's a huge interest in ongoing enhanced development of the use of telehealth in countries everywhere. We see that in all areas of the world and there's an opportunity for all of us to share those experiences.
- [18:07]
Samantha Murphy Kelly
Thanks for listening to the Next Innovation. This series was produced by Situation Room Studios and powered by Enterprise Ireland. Investing in the next wave of innovation. Our Executive producer is Christine Barata and our Senior producer is Sharon Barreiro. Emily Beeman is our Associate producer. Additional production assistance by Global Situation Room. A special thanks to Dr. Dale Alverson, Nikki Fetterman, Alyssa Guccar, Ruth Reader and Jerry Fuchuk. I'm your host, Samantha Murphy. Kelly until next time.