Читать книгу The Future of Health - Roberto Ascione - Страница 22

In the United States, a team of scientists is working to bring a human face to telemedicine. I am talking about Sensely, a San Francisco–based digital health and insurtech platform, which has developed a virtual nurse that can help health-care professionals and patients monitor and manage patient health in a new and efficient way. With a smiling face and a reassuring voice, the avatar designed by Sensely is a computer interface that uses ML to support the chronically ill between medical visits.

The incredibly realistic nurse avatar, amicably nicknamed Molly, was designed to have access to a patient's records so it can ask appropriate questions about the patient's past history and respond to new requests. Molly has a kind and thorough demeanor that puts the patient at ease, and interacting with the avatar is a surprisingly natural process. Molly responds to patients' requests, interacts in discussions, and is able to interpret the movements of a patient's body. When a patient needs to be “visited” by Molly, he or she poses in front of a Kinect sensor, an accessory that is movement-sensitive and was originally developed by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 gaming console. Kinect can capture a patient's image and relative position in space and send it to Molly. Once this has been done, the person states what his or her problem is. Suppose the patient is undergoing therapy for the reduction of a bursitis. He or she can raise the affected arm and show Molly, who will be able to determine if the therapy is obtaining the desired results. The Kinect sensor's skeletal tracking capabilities allow Sensely to measure the patient's range of movement and calculate changes since his or her last visit or interaction. Additionally, since the Kinect sensor records a clear view of the patient, Molly can guide him or her through appropriate therapeutic exercises. A growing number of health-care professionals and hospitals are recognizing the value of applications like Sensely. San Mateo Medical Center in California is one of several U.S. hospitals that have recently “hired” Molly to be part of their staff. The added value of such solutions is particularly evident in the treatment of patients who suffer from long-term pathological conditions and therefore require frequent monitoring of certain parameters such as blood pressure or blood sugar.

Remote treatment of a patient is less expensive and generally more efficient than on-site assistance. For this reason, solutions such as Sensely also offer a clear cost advantage to providers and insurers. A recent study has shown that Sensely reduced patient calls to health-care professionals by 28 percent, and freed nearly one-fifth of the day for those health-care professionals involved in the study. But above all, the Sensely nurse offers the promise of improved results, more frequent health monitoring and greater involvement of patients in their own care. It's something to think about the next time you're waiting in your doctor's waiting room.

The company recently closed a round of investments worth $15 million, finalized at increasing the number of languages available on the platform, to further expand into North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.