A pilot program at CHOC is giving cardiac patients and their families more peace of mind. Launched by pediatric cardiologist and CHOC’s chief intelligence and innovation officer Dr. Anthony Chang, the CHiP (Cardiopulmonary Health intelligence Program) clinic provides home monitoring equipment to families for the purpose of tracking patients’ vitals, such as blood pressure and oxygen saturation. Through telepresence, families can also connect with their physicians without leaving their homes.
“Patients and families feel more comfortable outside the clinical setting. But when away from the hospital, parents can feel very anxious about their children’s health and well-being,” explains Dr. Chang. “Our CHiP clinic ensures continuity of care, while providing great comfort to parents who know they can connect with their physicians without visiting their offices.”
CHiP is based on another innovative idea from Dr. Chang: the iClinic. According to Dr. Chang, the iClinic is a philosophy of leveraging emerging technologies to help create efficiencies, improve workflow and the continuity of care for patients by bringing CHOC expertise to patients’ homes. The ultimate goal is improving quality care and positive outcomes for patients.
There are five key components of the iClinic, all starting with the letter “I”:
- Instantaneous – Instead of periodic measurements at home, monitoring devices can measure at any time.
- Intermittent – Instead of being limited to scheduled visits, virtual visits can happen at any time. These virtual visits can include educational sessions, in addition to wellness checks.
- Individual therapy – Precision medicine is built into the iClinic, including genomics and pharmacogenomics, to find the medicine or treatment best suited for the patient.
- Intelligent data-driven medicine – All data is compiled and analyzed to make the best possible decisions, including personalized medicine and drug discovery.
- Intuitive interactions – Through telepresence and the ability to provide instantaneous data with feedback, the iClinic contributes to an experience that feels authentic and intuitive.
Dr. Chang envisions rolling the “clinic of the future” to other specialties at CHOC, beyond CHiP.
“This is the clinic of the future. It is inclusive of wearable devices, avatars, artificial intelligence and genomic medicine. But it’s important to note we’re not using the technology for the sake of just using fancy gadgets. We are leveraging emerging technologies to really change how we deliver care in the best possible way,” explains Dr. Chang.
Providers who are interested in piloting a similar program at their institutions are free to contact Dr. Chang at achang@choc.org.
