Seattle Children's built an app for kids and their families to do Zoom-powered virtual visits, access their MyChart patient portal and navigate the hospital. But its creators told Becker's they want to keep pushing to create the "ChatGPT" or "Google Calendar" of digital front doors.
The hospital debuted the app in 2020, but has since added features such as a Spanish language version, a universal search feature, an Epic EHR-integrated surgery tracker, a virtual waiting line to speak to a pharmacist, and urgent-care booking and virtual appointments.
"Our North Star was to have it to be your digital concierge, your front door to the hospital with an equity lens in mind," said Charlie Kim, a software development manager at Seattle Children's.
"We're really providing a space for families to go for a one-stop shop," said Christina Berry-White, product manager for the Seattle Children's app.
The app's developers say they aren't done improving it. They'd like to find ways for patients and families to connect with one another, create and receive e-cards, send kudos to staff, and have access to more education resources.
The "pie-in-the-sky" vision is for the platform to be interoperable so patients can exchange data with all their providers and pharmacies in one place, Mr. Kim said.
"The app would be a Google Calendar of medical events/Apple Notes — having the ability to integrate all these disparate systems so families don't need to ask each of their respective care teams: 'Where's my information? How can I get this to the next person that needs it?'" he said. "We'd like to build something that's almost like a ChatGPT for healthcare, where it just kind of knows what you're going to put in before you even put in something just because it has all this information."
That would include knowing what language the patient speaks so that it automatically translates for them.
Helping reach that goal will be the app's six developers and product manager, a group Seattle Children's plans to expand. "Having this internal team has really provided us the ability to move quickly and in an agile fashion to respond to any issues that the business may be having, to add content, and really just provide the resources families need in a quicker fashion," Ms. Berry-White said.
Seattle Children's gets ideas for new features from its monthly family advisory board meetings with patients' families. The hospital makes sure the digital front door stays accurate and updated by providing families an opportunity to report incorrect data and proactively reach out to businesses to ensure their data is correct. The team also plans to keep encouraging clinicians to remind people to download the app.
"Navigating healthcare for anybody is very stressful, especially in a pediatric situation where you're trying to navigate it for your child," Ms. Berry-White said.
"When families are in conversation with their care team, they are very focused on the diagnosis and the treatment plan. And the staff doesn't always have the time to answer questions like, 'How do I get Child Life services?' Or, 'Where can I go to rest during my child's surgery?' So we really just wanted to provide a way for families to access the information they needed when they needed it."