Research Projects

Problem:

Walking dramatically improves health outcomes and a hospital’s financial performance, but patients don’t walk as much as they should.

Research from the American Geriatric Society estimates that patients are in bed for about 83% of the hospital stay and spend less than 3% of their time standing or walking. This immobility has dire consequences for patient health: patients stay in the hospital longer, their physical well-being dramatically deteriorates, are more likely to return to the hospital and cost health providers money.

Solution:

In response to this pressing health and financial issue,Theravision Health Informatics has developed the ArtWalk program to promote inpatient walking, engages staff and optimizes rehabilitation.

At the core of the program is Theravision’s iPad-based, Augmented Reality art scavenger system which will motivate patients to walk sooner and more often. Patients walk to ‘collect’ curated art and landmarks on their floors; in doing so this gamification allows them to understand and meet their daily walking goals.

Pilot Design:

Patients enrolled into the ArtWalk pilot study are expected to walk more and become healthier sooner.

To measure this, we randomize 30 patients into a control or intervention group. Both patient cohorts are equipped with Fitbit wristbands to track their walking metrics. Patients in the control group do not have the ArtWalk iPad application, but the intervention group does.

Patient Population: Surgical oncology patients undergoing the HIPEC proecure.

Outcome metrics:

• Step count
  
• Length of stay (LOS)
  
• 30-day readmission rates
  
• Surgical complication rates
  
• Patient Satisfaction scores
  

Logistics:

• Project Leader: Benyam Alemu
  
• Clinical Champion: Dr. Jula Veerapong
  
• Principal Investigators: Benyam Alemu and Dr. Jula Veerapong
  
• Pilot site: UC San Diego Health - La Jolla, Jacobs Medical Center
  
• Commercialized: Yes - Theravision Health Informatics (Nov 2017)
  

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