UC Davis Health is collaborating with a Colorado-based company to introduce a wearable medical device to its clinical practice.
UC Davis Health announced the collaboration with BioIntelliSense Inc. last week. The company makes wearable technology that helps clinicians monitor patients’ vital signs outside of the hospital.
“Remote care represents a safe and effective way for many people, especially in rural and low-income communities, to access necessary health care services in more convenient ways,” Dr. David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health, said in a statement. “As one of the nation’s leaders in telehealth, we’ve seen how real-time technology connects expertise with need, closing large time-lapse gaps in health care delivery.”
Dr. Ashish Atreja, chief information and digital health officer for UC Davis Health, told the Business Journal the technology could also result in shorter hospital stays, because a patient won’t have to stay for observation after a treatment — they can be monitored at home. And it could result in fewer hospital stays.
“If someone is sick, but not sick enough to go to the hospital, we can give them the patch and monitor them,” he said.
The technology is a device that sticks onto the patient’s chest like a patch. It has an internal battery, and connects to the patient’s phone or computer via bluetooth. It continuously monitors the patient’s heart rate, body temperature and more than a dozen other vital signs.
“This allows us to provide the tools to the patients, and the oversight, so that we can better provide care at home,” Atreja said.
He said UC Davis Medical Center is planning to start using the devices on patients this fall, and to expand the program by next year.
UC Davis Health is also collaborating with BIoIntelliSense to further develop the technology.
“A large part is not just using it on patients, but actually taking it one to 10 steps further,” Atreja said.
At its Digital CoLab, Digital Collaborative for Innovation and Validation, UC Davis will work with BioIntelliSense to improve the technology and further study its potential uses.
“We are proud to embark on this strategic collaboration with UC Davis Health to advance remote care for patients across the care continuum,” said BioIntelliSense CEO Dr. James Mault, in a statement. “With cost effective, data-driven continuous care, we can bend the cost curve and extend the reach of advanced remote care technologies to improve how we treat and care for patients with complex conditions including oncology, orthopedics, cardiac, infectious disease and renal disease.”
Atreja said Digital CoLab was started with the goal of making it a global hub for collaboration on digital health innovations. CoLab works with physicians to develop and launch new products that help deliver health care outside of the inpatient setting.
“How do we go beyond brick-and-mortar hospitals,” Atreja said. “Sometimes the best care is the care you get at home.”
