Data from the new hospital-at-home platform will be accessible through Orlando Health's Epic electronic health records through a multiyear agreement with the connected health and digital therapeutics company.

WHY IT MATTERS

Orlando Health – a nonprofit health system with 18 hospitals and emergency rooms, with five in development, serving the southeastern United States – is expected to launch the new advanced remote patient monitoring capabilities in early 2023.

Adding a virtual provider network can improve patient outcomes, prevent hospital readmissions, accelerate drug development and close critical gaps in care, according to the Biofourmis announcement. 

The data-driven platform takes physiological signal data from patient sensors – like heart rate, blood pulse wave, heart-rate variability, respiration rate and numerous others – and applies advanced AI and machine-learning techniques to flag changes in at-home patient conditions that could indicate disease progression.

It can analyze more than 120 biomarkers, provides continuously updated patient views and actionable care insights and enables in-home ancillary service coordination, provider scheduling and patient support through the EHR, the company says.

"Delivering hospital-level care within the patient’s home has been a goal for Orlando Health," said Dr. Jamal Hakim, Orlando Health's chief operating officer, in the announcement.

"This comprehensive solution ensures the safest, highest-quality care, as well as ease-of-use for patients and providers," he said.

Given the size of the health system, the new RPM program could be one of the largest in the United States, added Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO and founder of Boston-based Biofourmis.

In November, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration approved the health system's plan for hospital-level acute care in adult patients' homes.

THE LARGER TREND

While RPM is still in its early days of integration into the healthcare system, the pandemic accelerated this trend by illustrating its need and value, said Robin Farmanfarmaian, author and Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur working in artificial intelligence.

"The promise and goal of RPM is to keep patients safely in their homes and catch problems early, before they become serious or emergency issues," Farmanfarmaian told Healthcare IT News in October. 

In 2020, the company's AI technology and wearables aided Hong Kong doctors and scientists in the fight against COVID-19.

With the Biovitals Sentinel’s technology and analytics system, doctors monitored patients diagnosed with or suspected of having coronavirus. In addition to real-time disease surveillance, the system was needed to aid epidemiological understanding of COVID-19, said Dr. David Chung Wah Siu, of the University of Hong Kong's department of medicine.

ON THE RECORD

"Our solution is purpose built to scale as rapidly and as large as Orlando Health needs," Singh Rajput said in the statement.

"In a short time, we expect hospital-at-home to become a popular care service for patients across the region, which will also ensure adequate access for critically ill and injured patients who require facility-based care."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.