Virtual Patient Observation: the technology helping nurses and medical staff in ICUs
Technology plays a key role in easing healthcare practitioners’ daily life. It is the case of machine learning (ML) and video monitoring in real-time, which can detect patients’ predefined behaviors, movements, or actions with alerts in real-time.
Virtual Patient Observation (VPO) is a solution developed at NTT Disruption to make patient care safer and more efficient, reducing the costs of patient observation. It enables nurses to maintain real-time response even if the number of monitored beds or events increase in ICU. This helps them attend to the patients right when they need assistance, helping nurses reduce the stress level of making routinary rounds, for example.
Virtual Patient Observation offers 24/7 personalized and centralized monitoring. It is a user-friendly interface that does not interfere with operation. This proactive supervision benefits patients by providing the sensation of extra attention with a non-invasive service that safeguards patient’s privacy. It helps alleviate the work of healthcare professionals so they can focus on what really matters: the patients’ health.
Real-time alerts for healthcare practitioners
One of the main features of Virtual Patient Observation is the different levels of alerts that are sent to the medical staff in real-time. These can be easily tracked in a tablet or mobile device, that can accompany health practitioners everywhere.
The alerts are color coded so the medical staff can easily identify the severity of the incident and take decisions as a result. They are ordered in inverse chronological order, showing the most recent events first. A distinct color pattern indicates the different alarm levels: yellow for “increased activity”, and red for a “critical alert”. It can also be easily scaled enabling nurses to maintain real-time responses even if the number of events increase.
This solution also helps create risk patterns for each patient so nurses can adapt their type of care accordingly. Having a constantly updated history of the patients’ alerts can help nurses study patterns of behavior and anticipate potential risks before they happen. For example, then can be more attentive for those patients who stand up to go to the restroom in the middle of the night. VPO can help nurses provide more personalized patient care, while reducing burnout by diminishing uncertainties and emergencies.
In addition, VPO also helps nurses ask for help when they need assistance attending a patient. This provides them with a support system, which also helps reduce stress.
Human-centered technology for healthcare
NTT Group believes in technology as a useful tool to strengthen global health workforces. It is the backbone of our health systems. Therefore, from NTT Disruption, we have joined our group’s commitment to Health & Wellbeing program based on the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. We joined this exciting mission to build human-centric tech solutions. We hope Virtual Patient Observation can be our humble contribution to empower health professionals around the world and reduce the feeling of burnout in the industry.
Contact us so we can explore Virtual Patient Observation together
Sources
De Hert, S., 2020: Burnout in Healthcare Workers: prevalence, Impact and Preventative Strategies. NCBI. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604257/ [Accessed 28, April, 2021]
World Health Organization (WHO)., 2020: Keep health workers safe to keep patients safe: WHO. Available online: https://www.who.int/news/item/17-09-2020-keep-health-workers-safe-to-keep-patients-safe-who [Accessed 28, April, 2021]
Pappa S., Ntella, V., Giannakas, T., et al., 2020: Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and insomnia among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ELSEVIER. Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S088915912030845X?via%3Dihub [Accessed 28, April, 2021]
Philip’s Future Health Index 2020. “The age of opportunity: Empowering the next generation to transform healthcare 2020.” Philips, 2020. Pg. 10. https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/future-health-index/reports/2020/the-age-of-opportunity.html [Accessed 28, April, 2021]
