Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Covid-19Telemedicine (COVID-19 Telemedicine – an infectious disease management tool for governments all over Europe that will reduce casualties from COVID-19 as well as prepare governments for the next wave of epidemics.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-08-01 do 2022-01-31
In early 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spread worldwide with a high transmission rate. The exponential growth rate of infected patients resulted in immense pressure on already scarce healthcare resources in the form of beds and medical personnel.
When this project commenced, there was an immediate requirement for solutions that could help monitor the development of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as help distribute healthcare resources in an effective manner to avoid breakdown of the healthcare systems.
The COVID-19 Telemedicine software is a pandemic preparedness solution that can be utilised not only for COVID-19 but also for future pandemics. It is a telehealth solution that enables automatic triage and remote monitoring of non-critical patients in their homes, thus keeping them out of hospitals, lessening the pressure on personnel and wards.
The project result was originally expected to be a fully rolled-out infectious disease management tool for governments all over Europe, that could help reduce casualties from COVID-19. However, as COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and national lockdowns were introduced, the threat to the national healthcare systems became less critical.
Then Long COVID, or COVID-19 lingering symptoms emerged, which caused an influx of patients to e.g. pulmonary wards and dedicated Long COVID clinics, adding additional strain to fatigued healthcare personnel and nearly depleted resources, after two years’ pandemic. The COVID-19 Telemedicine project was therefore expanded to also include monitoring of Long COVID patients and contribution of anonymised data to research.
During engagement with healthcare systems on how to best cater to Long COVID patients and the healthcare personnel tending to their health, a new untapped market demand emerged to offer remote patient monitoring of subacute patients. A Danish regional healthcare authority, coined the term eHospital for this solution, and it has since been in pilot phase with Levvel Health technology. The regional eHospital is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind worldwide.
The eHospital is dedicated to subacute patients who don’t require specialised treatment in a traditional hospital but who are too sick to stay in their homes even with remote monitoring. An example of such a patient could be an elderly woman with COPD who is admitted to the eHospital because of a urinary tract infection. She is sick, she needs professional healthcare and monitoring, but she does not need to be admitted to a traditional hospital. Instead, such patients can be admitted to municipal beds close to their homes and be cared for by nurses and healthcare assistants.
The primary benefits of the solution are the same whether it is utilised for caring for COVID-patients, subacute patients or chronically ill patients: Healthcare costs are considerably lowered and the shortage of healthcare professionals is effectively addressed.
In summary, the COVID-19 Telemedicine project started out as a digital solution addressing an urgent need caused by a single disease. After the project periode, the result is a complex, yet simple to use, remote patient monitoring solution that is disease and device agnostic, and has the ability to adapt to fluctuations in diseases, not least can it be utilised as the backbone of eHospital facilities, making healthcare cheaper, truly cross-sectional, and patient-centred.
When this project commenced, there was an immediate requirement for solutions that could help monitor the development of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as help distribute healthcare resources in an effective manner to avoid breakdown of the healthcare systems.
The COVID-19 Telemedicine software is a pandemic preparedness solution that can be utilised not only for COVID-19 but also for future pandemics. It is a telehealth solution that enables automatic triage and remote monitoring of non-critical patients in their homes, thus keeping them out of hospitals, lessening the pressure on personnel and wards.
The project result was originally expected to be a fully rolled-out infectious disease management tool for governments all over Europe, that could help reduce casualties from COVID-19. However, as COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and national lockdowns were introduced, the threat to the national healthcare systems became less critical.
Then Long COVID, or COVID-19 lingering symptoms emerged, which caused an influx of patients to e.g. pulmonary wards and dedicated Long COVID clinics, adding additional strain to fatigued healthcare personnel and nearly depleted resources, after two years’ pandemic. The COVID-19 Telemedicine project was therefore expanded to also include monitoring of Long COVID patients and contribution of anonymised data to research.
During engagement with healthcare systems on how to best cater to Long COVID patients and the healthcare personnel tending to their health, a new untapped market demand emerged to offer remote patient monitoring of subacute patients. A Danish regional healthcare authority, coined the term eHospital for this solution, and it has since been in pilot phase with Levvel Health technology. The regional eHospital is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind worldwide.
The eHospital is dedicated to subacute patients who don’t require specialised treatment in a traditional hospital but who are too sick to stay in their homes even with remote monitoring. An example of such a patient could be an elderly woman with COPD who is admitted to the eHospital because of a urinary tract infection. She is sick, she needs professional healthcare and monitoring, but she does not need to be admitted to a traditional hospital. Instead, such patients can be admitted to municipal beds close to their homes and be cared for by nurses and healthcare assistants.
The primary benefits of the solution are the same whether it is utilised for caring for COVID-patients, subacute patients or chronically ill patients: Healthcare costs are considerably lowered and the shortage of healthcare professionals is effectively addressed.
In summary, the COVID-19 Telemedicine project started out as a digital solution addressing an urgent need caused by a single disease. After the project periode, the result is a complex, yet simple to use, remote patient monitoring solution that is disease and device agnostic, and has the ability to adapt to fluctuations in diseases, not least can it be utilised as the backbone of eHospital facilities, making healthcare cheaper, truly cross-sectional, and patient-centred.
During the project period we have made the following work:
* System integration analysis and implementation
* Found a way to make deployment faster, cheaper, and more secure
* Made system integration with healthcare organisations in Europe using a large variety of IT solutions.
* Made a deployment automation of the telehealth solution ensuring concurrent deployments according to regulation and standards
* Plan and produce training materials (documents, checklists, and videos) for all user groups and the general population with translation to major languages in the region that is supported by the roll-out
* Developed a user application based on medical protocols and integration with the OpenTele platform
* Extensive user testing and focus groups
* Ensured multi-language support
* Developed administrative tools and reports
* Developed a user-friendly web application
* Design and develop administrative system for healthcare staff integrated in a new, intuitive and comprehensive clinician dashboard
* Ensured and documented compliance with medical protocols
* Integrated wearable and medical devices
* Prepared for large scale operations by analysis of capacity requirements (system, people, server and bandwidth) incl. SIEM setup, hardening and security testing.
* Made a Capacity Management Plan
* Made a legal AI framework
* Had the solution third party penetration tested
* Made and tested our consent engine
* Set up a database for AI development, including security procedures and Business Intelligence configuration to oversee the data acquisition.
* Sourced external data and trained AI models
* Developed an Open Research Data Pilot in which researchers can up- and download anonymised health data freely to enable research in comorbidities.
Additionally, we have further developed our solution based on user feedback and advice from healthcare professionals. The COVID-19 Telemedicine project started out as a digital solution addressing a single disease and ended up as an intricate, yet simple to use, remote patient monitoring solution that is disease and device agnostic, and which can be utilised as the backbone of eHospital facilities, making healthcare cheaper, truly cross-sectional, and patient-centred.
We have carefully disseminated the projects results on an on-going basis via our social media, websites, conference participations, newsletters, videos, workshops, webinars as well as an extensive cooperation with the Danish TRade Councils abroad, that helped us spread the word and set up meetings with potential partners and customers.
* System integration analysis and implementation
* Found a way to make deployment faster, cheaper, and more secure
* Made system integration with healthcare organisations in Europe using a large variety of IT solutions.
* Made a deployment automation of the telehealth solution ensuring concurrent deployments according to regulation and standards
* Plan and produce training materials (documents, checklists, and videos) for all user groups and the general population with translation to major languages in the region that is supported by the roll-out
* Developed a user application based on medical protocols and integration with the OpenTele platform
* Extensive user testing and focus groups
* Ensured multi-language support
* Developed administrative tools and reports
* Developed a user-friendly web application
* Design and develop administrative system for healthcare staff integrated in a new, intuitive and comprehensive clinician dashboard
* Ensured and documented compliance with medical protocols
* Integrated wearable and medical devices
* Prepared for large scale operations by analysis of capacity requirements (system, people, server and bandwidth) incl. SIEM setup, hardening and security testing.
* Made a Capacity Management Plan
* Made a legal AI framework
* Had the solution third party penetration tested
* Made and tested our consent engine
* Set up a database for AI development, including security procedures and Business Intelligence configuration to oversee the data acquisition.
* Sourced external data and trained AI models
* Developed an Open Research Data Pilot in which researchers can up- and download anonymised health data freely to enable research in comorbidities.
Additionally, we have further developed our solution based on user feedback and advice from healthcare professionals. The COVID-19 Telemedicine project started out as a digital solution addressing a single disease and ended up as an intricate, yet simple to use, remote patient monitoring solution that is disease and device agnostic, and which can be utilised as the backbone of eHospital facilities, making healthcare cheaper, truly cross-sectional, and patient-centred.
We have carefully disseminated the projects results on an on-going basis via our social media, websites, conference participations, newsletters, videos, workshops, webinars as well as an extensive cooperation with the Danish TRade Councils abroad, that helped us spread the word and set up meetings with potential partners and customers.
For what COVID-19 is concerned, we are yet to see the long term societal and socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 and how remote patient monitoring can lessen the cost of treating patients with lingering symptoms. As these symptoms are typically not acute, Long COVID seems an obvious application for remote patient monitoring, given the documented success with other non-acute therapeutic areas.
The socio-economic impact of remote patient monitoring can be counted in billions of Euros a year when its full potential is reached. In Denmark alone, 10 percent of the GDP is spent on traditional healthcare. In the coming years, the demand will be increasing and the available resources cannot meet the demand. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the long overdue digitisation of the healthcare systems. Digital solutions like COVID-19 Telemedicine were introduced to the market as a direct result of the pandemic and will be part of solving the future challenges in the healthcare sector. COVID19 Telemedicine can in part be utilised as a tool for pandemic preparedness, but also as the backbone of eHospital facilities. We expect this utilisation to grow exponentially in the coming years, and have a considerable societal impact given that this particular healthcare setup is cheaper than traditional hospital admissions and supports true, patient-centred and cross-sectional healthcare.
The socio-economic impact of remote patient monitoring can be counted in billions of Euros a year when its full potential is reached. In Denmark alone, 10 percent of the GDP is spent on traditional healthcare. In the coming years, the demand will be increasing and the available resources cannot meet the demand. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the long overdue digitisation of the healthcare systems. Digital solutions like COVID-19 Telemedicine were introduced to the market as a direct result of the pandemic and will be part of solving the future challenges in the healthcare sector. COVID19 Telemedicine can in part be utilised as a tool for pandemic preparedness, but also as the backbone of eHospital facilities. We expect this utilisation to grow exponentially in the coming years, and have a considerable societal impact given that this particular healthcare setup is cheaper than traditional hospital admissions and supports true, patient-centred and cross-sectional healthcare.