[Coronavirus image courtesy of World Health Organization]
The MCMS COVID-19 virtual care evaluation and monitoring system — which Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) announced late last week — is now available to U.S. health systems, plans and employers. It follows the company’s launch of a respiratory infectious disease health check to its existing MCMS customers.
Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic’s respiratory infectious disease health check is touted as an included add-on solution to all current MCMS programs designed to help patients with chronic, co-morbid health conditions who are at the highest risk for complications or mortality associated with coronavirus.
The program assists patients in tracking their respiratory infectious disease symptoms and body temperature with daily health checks. It is designed to dynamically react during the checks to present symptom questions based on previous responses, while also offering education to encourage self-care and aggregating data for clinician review and action if necessary.
Medtronic designed the new stand-alone coronavirus evaluation and monitoring system to use a virtual assistant to evaluate patients through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guideline-based survey for COVID-19 symptoms.
If symptoms warrant action, the platform connects the user to the MCMS nurse command center so registered nurses can review the data and identify recommendations or the need for additional care, based on the CDC guidelines.
“With the rapid spread of COVID-19, we know that alternative approaches to screening, disease monitoring, and patient education are urgently needed to reduce additional population exposure to the virus and ease the burden on health care providers and facilities,” MCMS VP & CM Sheri Dodd said in a news release. “Unless you consult a medical professional, it’s hard to know when your symptoms warrant seeking medical care. Using technology for self-reported symptom monitoring may play an important role in slowing the spread of the disease and helping escalate patient needs to their provider when appropriate.”
Other companies in the medical software space are also offering tools to help health providers deal with the pandemic. Minneapolis-based Provation, for example, is offering complimentary PDFs of the COVID-19 Provation Order Set and Care Plan — available online to download.
