Earlier this month, a children’s hospital in LA launched a new program for at-home asthma monitoring using a wearable smart stethoscope device that enables doctors to virtually and remotely keep track of pediatric breathing metrics. The device provides physicians the ability to remotely listen to lung sounds and rapidly assess if a child’s asthma symptoms are progressing, so that escalation in care pathways can be determined. The device is only the size of a coin, and can be worn all day to ensure continuous monitoring. Programs like this are massive boons to parents who are often stranded without pediatric advice in between their hospital visits. According to the World Health Organization, asthma affects nearly 363 million people worldwide, and causes more than 440,000 deaths annually. A large portion of these statistics is children, as asthma can escalate from benign to extremely severe often within a very short window of time.
For parents, pediatric illnesses can be devastating, as they often have to rely on emergency nursing or on-call physician lines, or go to the emergency department, which frequently have hours-long wait times. Therefore, devices like this can significantly help improve quality of life for both child and parent by acting as a first source of triage to determine next steps.
Another example is a recent AI driven software that can analyze ear drums to determine if there are signs of infection. Ear related conditions are among the most frequently cited reasons for pediatric visits to the emergency department and for primary care. It’s also often one of the leading reasons for antibiotic prescriptions, which can lead to increased resistance if not done appropriately. Software like this can significantly aid parents in an emergent situation and also help decrease systemic overuse of healthcare resources.
Indeed, if done correctly and devices like these are deemed to be accurate and safe, there is significant positive potential for their impact on the overall healthcare system. A recent report found that nearly 4 million children across the United States do not have regular access to a pediatrician. There are numerous reasons for this, one of which is a significantly overburdened pediatrician workforce. Furthermore, the communities that are often hardest hit by shortages like this are in rural areas, where patients often may have to drive more than an hour to see the closest physician. Pediatricians remain among the lowest paid specialists throughout the healthcare industry, further disincentivizing future trainees from choosing the specialty and therefore, adding to the shortage of physicians.
Although innovative tools and software as mentioned above may be able to bridge some of these gaps, the reality is that the healthcare system needs to focus on instituting wider changes to improve both the workforce and access issues overall. If relying on new technology to help alleviate the problems, then policymakers and technologist must use the strictest standards in determining whether they are ready to be patient facing. Finally, parents and all patients should only rely on the advice of trained medical professionals; while many of these tools may be helpful, they are still in their early days and require time and iterations to be perfected and accurate.
