UC San Diego Health Takes Aim at Telehealth, mHealth Innovation

The University of California at San Diego Health System is joining the growing ranks of health systems seeking to develop and in many cases commercialize innovative telehealth and mHealth devices and platforms.

The health system has announced the launch of the Center for Health Innovation, which “will seek to develop, test and commercialize technologies that make a real, measurable difference in the lives and wellbeing of patients.”

“Every US hospital has common challenges to address in continuously improving patient experience, outcomes and safety,” Patty Maysent, UC San Diego Health’s CEO, said in a press release. “This is where our efforts will focus. Basically, we’re taking real-world problems, such as diabetes and hypertension, and using our insights to address these conditions with what will one day become safe patient-centered technologies.”

The concept isn’t necessarily new, as health systems like Providence Health, UPMC, Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and even nearby Scripps Health have been developing innovative new connected health programs and tools for years, sometimes even spinning off digital health companies. But the pandemic has cast a sharper light on concepts like remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics, and many providers are looking for guidance as they adopt these technologies or map out a hybrid healthcare strategy.

“Doctors, nurses and medical teams know best where there are existing technology gaps in patient care,” Christopher Longhurst, MD, the health system’s chief information officer, said in the press release “Our in-house teams of clinicians and scientists will innovate solutions that lead to things like lower blood pressure with longer term goals, like reduced number of hospitalizations and a longer life. With our proximity to the health and biotech sector as well as the cross-border region, the number of collaborative opportunities are immense.”

That collaboration includes a partnership with the Techna Institute, based at the University Health Network’s campus at the University of Toronto. That organization has been working with a number of health systems on digital therapeutic devices and other programs.

The two organizations have already worked together. They recently developed CA Notify, a smartphone-based mHealth service on Google and Apple platforms that lets users know if they’re been exposed to someone infected with COVID-19.

“COVID-19 created a crisis where remote monitoring of patients, including video visits, had to become a new standard of care,” Parag Agnihotri, MD, UC San Diego Health’s chief medical officer of Population Health Services, said in the press release. ”The lessons learned from this time period will bring new technologies to bear for patients with both chronic and emergent conditions.”

Officials say they’ll be focusing on devices like wearable sensors and RPM platforms that can improve care management for people with chronic conditions at home, including elderly and at-risk patients and those in underserved communities.