Mayo Clinic in Florida is exploring the potential for ambient clinical intelligence to enable a more proactive approach to care delivery, and potentially reduce hospitalizations and severity of illness and improve patient quality of life.
WHY IT MATTERS
Clearwater, Florida-based hellocare.ai, which develops ambient documentation, digital whiteboards, patient engagement tools and hospital-at-home services, announced the new Mayo Clinic partnership Tuesday.
“Our mission is to combine world-class care with innovation that anticipates and solves tomorrow’s healthcare challenges,” Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, said in a statement.
Smart hospital platforms that feature AI-enhanced virtual rounding, admissions and discharge tools can help healthcare organizations scale oversight, optimize clinical resources and improve patient outcomes. The platform can also give patients access to 24/7 virtual support.
“Innovative technology is playing a key role in our new hospital expansion – enabling smarter, more connected care environments that enhance both the patient and staff experience,” Thielen said.
“Our recent hospital expansion is more than just adding beds; it’s about reimagining the patient and clinician experience,” added Dr. Michael Maniaci, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
“By integrating advanced technologies like ambient clinical intelligence and digital engagement tools, we’ve created a care environment where patients are more connected and clinicians can focus more on personalized care.”
In April, hellocare announced it had secured $47 million in investment. Through the new partnership, Mayo Clinic has a financial stake in the technology’s success. According to hellocare’s announcement, Mayo Clinic would use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit patient care, education and research mission.
THE LARGER TREND
More health systems are looking to inpatient virtual care technologies to modernize and elevate patient care and staff experiences, improve safety and reduce operational costs.
AI-driven virtual care platforms have also been shown to improve clinical resource deployment, resulting in greater scheduling flexibility for employees and streamlining or eliminating repetitive administrative tasks that cause burnout.
They can make patient care more personalized, too, Jong Yeob Kim, a researcher with the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, said at the HIMSS24 APAC conference
KHIDI’s smart hospital project, which began in 2020, involved 17 hospitals in South Korea. Since the program launched, it has developed and deployed 74 smart hospital tools.
Improving patient experiences is what differentiates a smart hospital from a digital one, Kim said.
“We were worried that there might be some resistance to digitalization, given that hospitals have many elderly patients,” he explained during his presentation. “But when we actually conducted a nationwide patient survey, many said that it was very convenient and that these smart hospitals should expand in the future.”
ON THE RECORD
“Collaborating with Mayo Clinic – the number one hospital in the world – on ambient clinical intelligence allows us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI, resulting in smarter, safer and more responsive care at scale,” Labinot Bytyqi, Hellocare’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
