Emory Healthcare deploys virtual patient monitoring platform Andor Health

Every year, between 700,000 and 1 million patient falls happen in U.S. hospitals. These result in roughly 250,000 injuries and up to 11,000 deaths. About 2% of hospitalized patients fall at least once during their stay and approximately one in four falls result in injury, with about 10% resulting in serious injury. Not to mention other safety risks, such as incidents of self-harm and elopement. 

It's only becoming more difficult for hospital staff to monitor these patients thanks to the staffing shortage, and so there has been a rise in remote patient monitoring solutions to help pick up the slack. One of those is Andor Health, which has developed a platform called ThinkAndor, which uses generative AI to unlock data stored in various systems, including ambient listening and real-time visualization, in order to detect common safety risks.

Now the company is expanding its deployment through a partnership with Emory Healthcare, a healthcare system made up of 24,000 employees, 11 hospitals, 2,796 licensed patient beds, and more than 3,450 physicians practicing in more than 70 specialties, serving metro Atlanta and Georgia with 425 locations.

Using AI and voice technology, ThinkAndor is able to glean actionable intelligence from EMR systems and deliver it to the clinician via a telehealth framework. The platform can be combined with collaboration suites such as Microsoft Teams.

The company's other solution, AndorNow, allows providers to reach patients with physician-approved educational content via an interactive media system that can deliver customized, on-demand patient experiences during pre-care, at the point of care, and during post-care interactions. AndorNow can be configured to deliver critical notifications, education, and contactless screening questionnaires to keep patients, frontline workers, and care teams informed. It can also be used to keep employees up to date on the latest health and safety procedures. 

Through this partnership, Andor Health virtual observers, working with registered nurses in a control center, will monitor patients 24/7, using voice activation technology to talk remotely with at-risk patients and remind them to stay in bed, call for assistance or provide other guidance. If there are any safety concern, Emory Healthcare staff will be notified.

Emory Healthcare will begin piloting ThinkAndor at two of its hospitals this month, remotely monitoring at-risk patients on medical and surgical floors and in the emergency departments. Andor Health's virtual patient observer/virtual sitter technology will be deployed in 32 inpatient rooms during the first year of the collaboration, with plans to add it to 50 additional rooms in the second year.

"Fundamentally, we have a shared vision of how we can transform clinical paradigms with the latest innovation in AI and virtual collaboration experiences," Raj Toleti, chairman and CEO of Andor Health, said in a statement. 

"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 optimizing staff with this additional support."

(Image source: andorhealth.com)