Page 11 - Christiana Care Focus April 2019

Alexa, is the Medical Aid Unit open?
| Cover Story
The Health & Technology Innovation Center at Christiana Care brings information technology experts together with caregivers and the community to create solutions that connect people with their health and wellbeing through data and technology.
The team also identifies new ways to use existing technologies to positively impact health. Although innovations such as the Apple Watch, Amazon Echo and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset may not have been conceived with health in mind, the staff at the Innovation Center helps caregivers understand the devices and identify potential health care applications.
In one example, Christiana Care is an early adopter of Alexa, Amazon’s digital voice assistant, to promote health and wellness. Christiana Care is the only health system in Delaware using Alexa. Currently, Alexa can answer 60 questions about Christiana Care, such as the location of its medical aid units and information about other services.
New tech for new moms
Christiana Care is using a pair of apps to help new mothers treat chronic illness, said Matthew Hoffman, M.D., MPH, Marie E. Pinizzotto, M.D., Endowed Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
High blood pressure is one of the most common reasons for postpartum readmission. In a new approach to care, at-risk mothers go home with a blood-pressure cuff and an app to send in data, and education in how to use them.
If their blood pressure starts to rise, medication adjustments sometimes can prevent a trip back the hospital. Equipping
Matthew Hoffman, M.D., MPH
Catherine Burch, MSM, CXA
“Our challenge is keeping up with the pace of change, understanding which innovations hold promise and finding those situations where we can apply them to maximum value,” said Catherine Burch, MSM, CXA, corporate director of the Innovation Center.
“At the same time,” she said, “we want to avoid using technology for its own sake, but instead use it in service to deepening human connections.”
at-risk patients with the cuff has led to a reduction in readmissions, bringing readmissions due to high blood pressure down to about 1.5% percent from over 2%, Dr. Hoffman said.
Gestational diabetes is another common condition during pregnancy that resolves after birth for 90% of mothers. Identifying the 10% of new mothers who still have diabetes can be a challenge, said Dr. Hoffman, as it requires a busy new mom to fit in a two-hour appointment for blood tests. Now at Christiana Care, mothers with gestational diabetes go home with a finger-stick glucose monitoring test, which they’re already used to using from their pregnancy, and an app to record the results.
Far more patients are able to take these more convenient tests, Dr. Hoffman said. “The convenience helps us to identify more new mothers with ongoing diabetes and help them get treated in a very timely way,” he said.
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