Automated Virtual Care & Triage
Conversa is an automated virtual care & triage platform with a library of “automated digital pathways” for chronic, acute, perioperative, cancer, pregnancy, and other patient journeys - and now COVID-19. Conversa’s virtual health assistant frictionlessly (no app to download, no log-in, no password) engages in automated check-ins with the patient, which include asking questions, collecting PROs, and collecting sensor-based data from RPM and other connected devices, as appropriate for the use case. Conversa’s AI and data analytics engine analyzes every interaction - and all the patient-generated health data (PGHD) - in realtime to determine if patient is on track with her care journey, requires a nudge to get on track, or if patient requires triage to the next level of care (e.g. E-visit, phone call, Telehealth visit, in-person appointment, etc.), which the system does automatically if /when required. Conversa remotely engages and monitors patients, provides ongoing risk stratification, automates care whenever possible, and provides automated triage for those at risk. It is designed to engage, monitor, and manage whole patient populations and is integrated into the data and workflows of the health system (e.g. EHR, RPM, CRM, etc.). For COVID-19, we quickly ramped up vulnerable patients on our programs to keep them and their providers connected without getting infected. We also developed a suite of automated pathways designed to address critical needs for healthcare organizations during the pandemic, including: COVID-19 Screener & Triage, COVID-19 QuarantineCheck, COVID-19 LabResults, COVID-19 Employee HealthCheck, COVID-19 PatientScreener, COVID-19 VisitorScreener, and COPE - our COVID-19 mental health program.
Our flexible, scalable platform and authoring tool allowed us to rapidly develop COVID-19 solutions with major health system partners in hot spots around the country to meet specific needs quickly. COVID-19 Employee HealthCheck was the first COVID-19 employee health screener in the country, developed in under a week with UCSF Health In response to the SF Department of Health order mandating workers be screened prior to entering healthcare facilities. Updated daily with CDC guidelines and UCSF medical input, it comes with an access control system that sends a badge to a user’s phone - “cleared for work”, “cleared but not with immunocompromised patients”, or “medical letter required”. It screens out employees indicating a likelihood of having the virus, and provides automated guidance and education. It comes with robust data dashboards and reporting. We’ve performed millions of screens of healthcare workers, essential workers, non-healthcare employees, and students - keeping people safe as the economy opens up. UCSF published a case study here (https://www.centerfordigitalhealthinnovation.org/covid-19-employee-digital-health-screener) and a paper in JAMIA (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tx-UGnB1CRgEL6sc9IhRXmBzUDL6LkBm/view?usp=sharing). We developed LabResults, which delivers COVID test/antibody results and further guidance, with Northwell Health (over 250,000 results delivered); QuarantineCheck with UNC Health; Screener & Triage with Prisma, and VisitorScreener and COPE mental health screener with UCSF. Over a dozen major health systems use these programs for their employees and patients and to serve employers and schools in their communities. We also partnered with Deloitte to bring the solution to large employers and with BioIntelliSense to add continuous vital sign monitoring. These products are battle tested!
Conversa’s customers are health systems and hospitals. Within those organizations, Conversa is viewed as an enterprise-wide automated virtual care platform that complements RPM, Telehealth, care coordination, care management, and call center services. Most health systems roll out Conversa in a number of service lines to start, e.g. Post Acute or CCM or Cardiovascular, Respiratory Care, etc. and expand use of the platform across the system. We also serve health plans, pharmaceutical companies, and others responsible for managing the outcomes of patient populations. During the pandemic, many health systems opted to launch one or more of our COVID-19 programs to address immediate needs of their patients and communities. As mentioned above, we are working with a number of our health systems partners to roll out our COVID-19 program suite to employers and universities as part of the health systems’ community services. End-users include: Patients in a vulnerable population who are being managed on one of our virtual care programs (e.g. lung transplant, COPD, CHF, CKD, etc.) to stay connected without getting infected. Patients who need to be screened in order to have a procedure (e.g. colonoscopy). Visitors to a hospital to see a patient. Healthcare workers. Essential workers and vendors. Employees as businesses open back up. Students and faculty at universities and K-12. Providers (e.g. doctors, nurses, care managers, etc.). Providers get notified of patients who are triaged and escalated by the virtual assistant (e.g. phone call, Telehealth visit, clinic appointment). Providers also can review patient status through dashboards and reporting.
