COVID-19 Work and Call for Telehealth Concepts
July 1, 2020 – By Jared Mueller, Director – Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange
This spring and summer, thousands of innovators and researchers at Mayo Clinic have turned their attention to protecting patients from COVID-19. Many are directly working to develop a vaccine. The Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange and its member companies and innovators are also doing their part.
Vanity Fair has reported on our member TECHFIT Digital Surgery’s work to develop an affordable ventilator prototype for use in Colombia. Our Mayo Clinic team’s own medical director and portfolio project manager have been directly involved in evaluating more than a dozen Mayo-developed innovations seeking to reduce COVID-19 transmission rates. As Dr. Bruce and I wrote in our post announcing the Exchange last month: our platform is tailor-made for the challenges facing entrepreneurs and the health care sector in this volatile era.
The Exchange is open to health care enterprises and innovators with a variety of business models, but among our strategic priorities is supporting the development of the home hospital concept. We are currently seeking members with projects related to remote monitoring, virtual care, telehealth, and hospital at home concepts.
Mayo Clinic recently announced the launch of an advanced care at home model. The president of Mayo Clinic Platform, Dr. John Halamka, has spoken about how developments in telehealth and delivering “higher-acuity services in a home setting” will enable vulnerable patients to receive top-quality care directly at home. Patients who can receive care at home rather than in a hospital enjoy greater continuity of routine and access to family members, experience a lesser risk of falls or infections by avoiding transit — and many report sleeping better in their own beds than in a hospital bed. While the primary rationale for home hospital care is the patient’s own health, freeing up hospital capacity and enabling physical distancing also pay societal benefits during a pandemic that has seen packed hospitals convert their lobbies into triage areas.
The Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange will continue to welcome health care innovators whose solutions improve patient experience and outcomes — whether those solutions have bearing on this immediate crisis, or not. Please visit us at innovationexchange.mayoclinic.org to see how the Exchange can help bring your company or your idea closer to patients.