Video Health Coaches for Discharge Planning

Background: Patient communication is a vital key to effective care.  This is never more true than during transitions of care, such as patient discharge.  While the Gold Standard in care would be a personal coach to work with every patient everyday of their recovery, program costs make this an impractical solution.  However, by employing Artificial Intelligence techniques, we can simulate this level of support with day-by-day education, monitoring and support throughout recovery, in a cost-effective manner.

Program background: 

MedRespond delivers this support with a patented interactive virtual video coach who engages patients each day of their recovery, with relevant information as the coach collects vital feedback to track progress. The first day of discharge, the video coach will open with a warm greeting, "Welcome home, this is the first day of your recovery. Your doctor has asked me to review some important instructions with you today, can we go over that now?" By day 5, the video coach is now a welcome visitor who regularly checks in -- "How are you doing today? Feeling better than yesterday?" The coaching system interprets the patient's answers, and responds with further instructions. Today's reports are compared to history. If the patient is seeming gloomy, maybe the coach will even tell them a joke. The flow of the patient dialog is driven by a standard recovery regimen. This is customized with patient information provided by providers (ie: preferences, concerns). Information from the patient's EHR can also be incorporated such as medications, allergies or comorbidities that could impact recovery. All of the information collected from the patient is reported to providers in real time and can also be provided to caregivers. Provider alerts can be set for certain events, such as reports of incision redness, increasing pain or fever.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The program logs every interaction with each patient.  This data, as well as outcomes, will be evaluated and compared to control patient data.

Conclusions: Using technology to extend scarce medical resources in a way that provides superior patient support holds promise to be a solution to the nation's healthcare delivery challenge.

Implications for research and/or practice: The approach should be studied across several disease conditions and settings to evaluate the technology's most effective use.