Current Health’s artificial intelligence (AI) wearable device that measures multiple vital signs has recently received FDA-clearance for patients to use at home. In February, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based company received clearance for the AI-enabled device in monitoring patients while in the hospital, but this recent approval means it can now be used between doctor visits at home too.
The wireless device, Current, measures a patient’s pulse, respiration, oxygen saturation, temperature and mobility. Current provides physicians with real-time updates regarding their patient’s health, allowing them to handle complications promptly. The technology utilizes machine learning to analyze the data it collects to detect problematic changes in data.
“As health systems seek to shift more health care out of the hospital and into the community, they need some way of maintaining visibility on those patients at home, and that’s exactly what we’re giving them,” said Christopher McCann, Current Health’s chief executive.
Current is most frequently used by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure, being that these two conditions have high rates of hospitalization. Providing accurate data regarding respiration and pulse, the device is properly equipped to monitor these diseases that rank among the most fatal in the US.
Expenses tethered to care of these patients is particularly high as well, therefore health officials are working to reduce costs in managing these conditions. Excess readmissions of heart failure patientsresult in hospitals being charged penalty fees, which is making providers shift focus to remote monitoring tools. Technologies like Current allow healthcare providers to monitor their patients closely while they are at home without need for extraneous office visits, effectively reducing costs. These technologies are also convenient for their ability to automatically integrate data into electronic health records.
“We wanted to create a patient experience that was as passive as possible,” the company wrote in a statement. “So we developed our all-in-one wearable. We monitor and track more vital signs than any other all-in-one wearable device on the market today and we do so with ICU-level accuracy. We also use that wearable as a hub on the body, interconnecting with other best-in-class-devices to eliminate manual entry.”
Patients who are using the wearable device also have access to a tablet that has educational content, medication reminders, and a chatbot. The latter a tool that is “powered by over 100 disease pathways” and is designed to capture patient symptoms, as per Current Health.
The company notes that all of Current’s functions yield a lot of data, and that are using their technology to identify and analyze early warning signs in patients. The goal is to promptly alert a physician so they can intervene as early as possible.
While the patient is being monitored remotely, the provider is still in communication with them through text messages and video visits on a secure server.
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“Our rapidly growing customer base indicates how focused health systems and home health agencies are on moving more healthcare from hospital to home,” McCann said. “Today, Current is helping them do just that by monitoring patients’ health trajectories to enable earlier interventions, reduce the overall and growing cost of hospital readmissions and, more importantly, prevent avoidable deaths. But more fundamentally we’re building a future where healthcare comes to us. Patients don’t always know when to call their doctor. Current Health will.”
The 1st remote monitoring device w/ #AI [@HeyCurrent], to get @US_FDA approval for home use, tracks all vital signs except blood pressure, The beginning of less need for hospital beds.https://t.co/4E2JmrVpiw by @caseymross @statnewshttps://t.co/Riq5Lsoe2n #DeepMedicine pic.twitter.com/iQaDnnOV3F
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 24, 2019
Sources: Current Health, STAT, MobiHealthNews
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