*COVID-19: We are committed to helping our community through this crisis. To that end, our incredible portfolio companies have many materials and products to assist in this time of need, and we will be promoting them in this series. We’ll get through this together - read on and stay tuned.
This post was written by Grace Chen, CEO and co-founder of our portfolio company LucidAct.
One hundred forty-seven million Americans live with a chronic medical condition. The coronavirus pandemic has put a significant part of the US population one hairline away from complications and that much closer to possible death. Now the strain on the healthcare system’s capacity is putting the most vulnerable patients at the highest risk - with patients feeling neglected, and providers feeling helpless about finding ways to better care for their patients.
A story I heard recently that resonated deeply with me was from metropolitan Detroit. A COVID-19 patient was discharged from one of the top medical centers and sent home with a “COVIDCARE” box that contained a couple of Gatorades, a thermometer, and a surgical mask. The instructions? “Take your temperature at home every day, and come back if necessary.”
Thankfully, today we are able to harness the power of technology to care for patients remotely and monitor their conditions frequently throughout the day. Devices such as Bluetooth thermometers, oximeters, and wireless blood pressure cuffs can now be leveraged in a virtual care environment.
At LucidAct, we are quickly adapting to best serve the providers in our network and help alleviate the overwhelming pressure on hospitals. We’re offering a comprehensive care package for patients sent home after testing positive with COVID-19 as well as COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals to recover.
This comprehensive care package includes:
A physical take-home care kit. Upon a patient's discharge from the hospital, LucidAct ships a set of Remote Patient Monitoring devices (a Pulse Oximiter, a Touchless Thermometer and a gateway box) to the patient’s home within 24 hours. Each item comes pre-configured for each individual patient and transmits data securely to a HIPAA-compliant cloud in real-time. After receiving the devices, the only step required of the patient is to plug the gateway box into the power outlet - no need to download any phone apps, and they don’t even need to have wi-fi in the house. As soon as the patient takes a temperature and/or oxygen measurement, their readings go directly into LucidAct’s cloud and the entire care team can access their patient’s vital sign dashboard from wherever they are.
Around-the-clock connection to virtual physicians and nurses. The gateway box at the patient’s home monitors the patient’s temperature and oxygen measurements. Whenever a measurement is abnormal, the healthcare provider is instantly notified with an alert issued by LucidAct. The patient can also press the Emergency button on the gateway box if they need to talk with somebody immediately. Virtual visits are then directed to clinicians who reside away from crisis epicenters and are not on active duty in order to alleviate stress from frontline workers.
Personalized care from dedicated case managers. Social determinants have a major impact on health outcomes. A case manager is assigned to each patient so they can answer questions, suggest resources, and coordinate supportive connections, including an individualized community care guide.
By incorporating these features into our Remote Patient Monitoring platform, we aim to help hospital administrations reduce the tremendous burden on their emergency departments and in-patient care units while providing patients with proactive, timely care at the comfort of their homes.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at any time to learn more about these resources.
Sincerely,
Grace
About Grace Chen
Grace is an accomplished Data Scientist with over a decade of experience in the Healthcare IT industry. Prior to starting LucidAct, Grace was a program director at Stanford Health Care and Sutter Health. She successfully led multiple high-profile care transformation projects at Stanford Cancer Center and jumped-started the survivorship program for 10,000 patients by targeting the specific needs of cancer survivors.
Grace came up with the idea for LucidAct after having to personally coordinate medical care for her elderly parent. While she wanted doctors to know her father’s situation deeper and understand him more intimately, Grace quickly realized a massive disconnect between multiple EMR systems and a void between the hospital care and home care after the discharge. Grace set out to build a better platform to connect all systems together and to make it dramatically simple for care teams to care for their patients. Thus, LucidAct Health was born.
About LucidAct
LucidAct is the leader in Connected Healthcare, empowering healthcare teams to provide proactive, truly personalized care and avoid unnecessary hospitalization after discharge. The connected care experience leverages Lucidact's AI technology by bringing together and analyzing data from multiple EMR systems, in-home monitoring devices, and insurance claims history to deliver better outcomes, higher patients satisfaction, and additional revenue through a cloud-based platform.