Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina is developing a telemedicine prototype to assist hospitals and patients when intensive care units are over capacity.
MUSC is one of nine remaining teams participating in the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center's competition to create a telemedicine model to assist with care when there are no available ICU beds. MUSC just completed the first task of the challenge and submitted it for evaluation, according to a July 10 news release.
Five details:
1. Each of the nine remaining teams has received up to $1 million to build their prototypes and had 15 days to complete the first of five tasks. Teams whose efforts are judged successful will be invited to compete in the next phase.
2. MUSC is developing a virtual ward that can expand critical care to bedsides in healthcare facilities, field hospitals, gymnasiums or patient homes. Several partners have signed onto MUSC's project, including Microsoft Azure, Advanced ICU Care, Medtronic and Doxy.me.
3. MUSC's Portable Remote Operational Wireless Enabled Surge Specialist ICU, or Prowess-ICU for short, would comprise wireless monitoring technology that collects COVID-19-relevant data from sensors and tech that stream to the cloud.
4. AI algorithms will then analyze the data to check whether a patient is clinically improving and update the information hourly in the EHR, which remote specialists at MUSC or other telemedicine hubs can use to decide if the patient needs to be moved to a different level of care.
5. The technology would especially benefit rural communities because it improves responsiveness to the needs of rural and minority communities during the pandemic, said Dee Ford, MD, director of MUSC's telehealth center.
"How to deploy 1,000 beds in a major urban center is an important component of any COVID-19 response," Dr. Ford said. "But equally important is how to deploy eight or 12 beds in a rural underserved community to make sure all citizens are getting the support they need. We've been intentional about how we think through those kinds of health disparities issues."