Virtua Health implements care.ai's ambient monitoring patient platform

The two companies first entered into a pilot in December

Care.ai is an ambient monitoring patient platform designed to take the burden off of care teams who are becoming increasingly burned out, leading to worker shortages. 

Through the use of AI-enabled sensors, as a way to get real-time insights into how patients are faring, its Smart Care Facility Platform transforms healthcare settings into responsive care facilities, ones that are able to continuously monitor patient activity, as well as the surrounding clinical and operational workflows. 

Now the technology will be available to more patients as care.ai has announced a partnership with New Jersey-based academic health system Virtua Health. Starting with Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, the companies plan to be eventually make the technology available in all acute care settings across Virtua Health.

Virtua operates five hospitals, two satellite emergency departments, 41 ambulatory surgery centers, and more than 350 other locations, while also offering health services through Hospital at Home, physical therapy and rehabilitation, mobile screenings, and its paramedic program.

It's also academically affiliated with Rowan University, leading research, innovation, and immersive education at the Virtua Health College of Medicine & Life Sciences of Rowan University. Virtua is also affiliated with Penn Medicine for Cancer and Neuroscience and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for pediatrics.

Founded in 2018, the Orlando, Florida-based Care.ai uses AI-enabled edge sensors to surface real-time inferences and insights to alert and report on activities that help healthcare organizations improve patient outcomes.

Depending on their care setting and needs, healthcare organizations can use the platform to improve operations such as infection prevention and control, patient and protocol monitoring, workforce optimization, virtual nursing, and virtual care.

Virtua and care.ai first launched a pilot for a Virtual Nurse in December 2023 in a medical-surgical unit. Using care.ai's technology, the Virtual Nurse communicates with patients through a secure, two-way optical camera; patients' family members can also participate in video calls from offsite.

The companies say that pilot has "received favorable patient feedback" and going forward they plan to expand it to additional hospital divisions. 

"Health systems are facing unprecedented clinician workforce shortages, emphasizing the crucial need to enhance the productivity and presence of care teams with technology that is proven to easily scale," care.ai CEO and founder Chakri Toleti said in a statement. 

"Our partnership with Virtua Health to leverage first our Smart From The Start virtual care solutions, supported by the ambient intelligence capabilities of our Smart Care Facility Platform, will reimagine a new and enhanced layer of support that empowers Virtua clinicians to work at the top of their licenses, focusing their time and skills on delivering compassionate care with a human touch."