Virtual care won’t replace caregivers — Caregility COO

NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES—Amid concerns that the latest technologies will replace nurses and caregivers, a tech executive has dismissed such concerns, noting that virtual care aims to enhance healthcare delivery.

Michael Brandofino, president and COO of Caregility, pointed out that various health systems have tried to equip rooms with cameras and sensors to monitor patients. 

As he explained, proper care is all about getting rich data from the hospital suite that caregivers can use to improve the patient’s health outcome. 

“To provide care, you need to be able to see and hear the room,” he said. 

As such, hospitals of the future will include sensors laced with artificial technologies that can, for example, acquire the patient’s vital signs through facial recognition.

Brandofino also pointed out that these technologies won’t necessarily run all day and night. The goal is to acquire usable information, not unnecessary things. 

He advised that before implementing such new technologies, hospitals should determine if they fit into the workflow. More importantly, they should ask if it is enhancing the information for the caregiver.

“We don’t want to replace caregivers. What we want to do is augment the information they have,” he noted.

Still, Brandofino said that the biggest challenge for hospital systems is getting lucrative returns on investment. 

Virtual care has extended the careers of healthcare veterans and has boosted those of newcomers. 

Bradofino noted that these are “soft” gains and so medical organizations must learn how to fully realize the potential of these technologies to boost ROI and improve patient care.