Philips, Vidyo Partner To Extend Telehealth

Telemedicine Tools That Are Transforming Healthcare

Philips Electronics and Vidyo are partnering to expand the variety of enterprise telehealth services that healthcare organizations can offer patients.

The non-exclusive collaboration will help Philips healthcare customers--including hospitals that use Philips' Visicu eICU technology--to extend telehealth services into new specialty areas, including stroke, mental health, and pediatrics, as well as home care of patients with chronic illnesses or who were recently discharged from a hospital, said Deb Dominianni, a Philips marketing manager, in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare.

Philip's eICU technology allows critical care clinicians to remotely monitor and examine ICU patients so that hospitals dealing with intensive care physician shortages can provide patients with 24x7 intensivist expertise.

[ Could offering patients free telehealth consults actually save money? See VA: Remove Copayments For Video Telehealth Consultations. ]

The Vidyo/Philips collaboration will combine Philips' enterprise telehealth products, including technology used in its eICU offerings, with Vidyo's Adaptive Video Layering Technology, an advanced audio and video platform for real-time, two-way communication and collaboration.

The combined telehealth technologies are aimed at hospitals and other providers "that have initiatives to address care, quality, costs, and shortages of staff," said Karsten Russell-Wood, a Philips global product marketing manager, in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare.

For healthcare providers seeking new mobile telehealth capabilities, the Philips/Vidyo offering will allow clinicians to securely use smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other mobile devices to provide real-time consultations and care for patients, he said. Vidyo application programming interfaces (APIs) also allow video and audio capabilities to be added within the clinical workflow, such as within emergency rooms or ICUs, said Dominianni.

The new telehealth offerings can be used to support patients in transitional care, such as individuals with congestive heart failure who are being discharged from a hospital and moved to a rehab facility or back home, she said.

"As healthcare providers evolve into accountable care organizations and medical homes, they're looking to extend their services to improve care and address costs," she said.

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