Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute

Nurses are leaving their high-stress jobs in droves, with experts predicting the U.S. healthcare system will be short 2.1 million nurses by 2025. To help address this burnout crisis and critical workforce shortage, Nashville-based hospital company Ardent Health Services is adopting virtual nurse technology at its Albuquerque hospital. On Tuesday, Orlando-based healthcare software company Care.ai announced that Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque will establish a virtual nursing program using its AI solution. Care.ai, which was founded in 2018, sells a virtual nursing solution that enables virtual nurses to handle patient care and administrative tasks that don’t require physical proximity. The company said Lovelace was among one of the first providers to implement its virtual nursing technology, though it can’t share any other customer names at this point. “This empowers bedside nurses to focus their time on the most important clinical and compassionate elements of human care delivery,” said Care.ai CEO and Founder Chakri Toleti. “This alleviates the burden on strained nurses and enables them to spend more time caring for patients, a job they are uniquely equipped to do.” With Care.ai’s product, patients can interact with virtual nurses through the television in their room. These virtual nurses can provide assistance with a variety of tasks, such as routine monitoring, documentation and educating patients about their treatment plans, Toleti said. The virtual nursing product is meant to support — not replace — on-site nurses. The solution was designed to optimize admission, rounding, discharging, and other clinical and operational workflows, Toleti explained. He said the product’s ultimate goal is to improve patient satisfaction, increase staff retention and reduce operating costs. “Reports project that approximately 1.2 million new registered nurses will be needed by 2030 to address the current shortage in the U.S., adding pressure to an already strained system,” Toleti said. “The nursing shortage and staff retention challenges across the healthcare system have taken a major toll on care teams, both physically and mentally.” In addition to freeing up nurses’ time, Toleti said Care.ai’s product will also “expand the pool of nursing staff available by unlocking new career paths for experienced nurses who may have physical limitations or prefer a different work environment.” For example, John Donga, a nurse at Lovelace, suffered an injury that prevented him from working on the floor. Through the newly implemented virtual nursing program, he has been able to attend to patients virtually and “continue the career he loves,” Toleti said. Care.ai’s virtual nursing product is a module that is integrated into the vendor’s broader “Smart Care Facility” platform, which includes functionalities like virtual visits and 24/7 ambient monitoring sensors. This is a differentiator that separates Care.ai from its competitors in the virtual nursing space, such as CareAngel. In Toleti’s view, other companies in the space offer “an array of point solutions” which puts providers at risk of further fragmenting complex workflows. “For example, the majority of care facilities today rely on cameras or clinicians to manually monitor —or “sit” — patients. However, it’s impossible for care teams to monitor all of their patients at once, especially when they are bogged down with routine tasks and data collection,” he said. In contrast, Care.ai delivers virtual monitoring not as a separate product, but rather a flexible and included feature of its greater platform, Toleti explained.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BrightSpec, Inc. announced today the appointment of R. Terry Dunlay to the Board of Directors, effective as of September 1, 2021. "I am excited to join the Board to offer the benefit of my experience scaling these types of businesses." -Terry Dunlay Mr. Dunlay brings more than 30 years of life science industry experience. Terry was the founder and CEO of IntelliCyt Corporation which developed instrumentation, software, and reagents for immunology and immuno-oncology applications. IntelliCyt was acquired by Sartorius AG of Germany in 2016. Prior to founding IntelliCyt, Terry was co-founder of Cellomics, a Pittsburgh, PA based automated cellular analysis company that was acquired by Thermo Fisher in 2005. Subsequent to his operating roles, Mr. Dunlay has remained active in the life science industry through directorships (Mindset Integrated, Wavefront Dynamics, and BennuBio) and non-profit participation (Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute). He holds an MS and BS in Electrical Engineering. "We are pleased to announce the appointment of Terry to our board of directors," said Walter Colsman, Chief Executive Officer of BrightSpec. "Terry brings a wealth of expertise gained over his entrepreneurial career in the life sciences. This timely addition to the board comes as we are accelerating our commercialization efforts. Terry's track record of developing successful companies that are subsequently acquired will certainly bring value to both our current and future investors." "BrightSpec's MRR instruments offer a highly differentiated approach to molecular analysis. With multiple high-value applications, there is great potential for growth across multiple market segments. I am excited to join the Board to offer the benefit of my experience scaling these types of businesses," said Mr. Dunlay. About BrightSpec, Inc. BrightSpec, Inc. is a life science instrumentation company developing commercial applications based on molecular rotational resonance (MRR). BrightSpec's instruments provide digital quality molecular structural characterization though the use of quantum chemistry, which accelerates the discovery process and improves the yield and quality of commercial synthesis. For more information on BrightSpec, please visit . View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE BrightSpec