5 January 2021 - - US-based automated virtual care and triage platform Conversa Health has expanded its suite of COVID-19 programs with tools to help the vaccine effort, the company said.

Conversa has partnered with BioIntelliSense to monitor healthcare workers at UCHealth in Colorado before and after receiving COVID-19 vaccinations.

UCHealth physicians, nurses and other front-line staff members wear BioIntelliSense's BioButton medical device two days before and seven days after vaccination.

The BioButton continuously monitors temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate at rest. Conversa collects information from the BioButton and integrates the vital signs data with insights from a daily interactive vaccination health survey developed by Conversa.

Conversa also is assisting health systems across the country with the challenge of vaccinating millions of patients.

This effort begins with educating patients on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

Patients want to know when they will be eligible to receive vaccines and what their experience will be like, including potential side effects.

And patients need an easy way to set up vaccine appointments and get reminders to follow through on their visits.

Health systems also want to monitor potential side effects, both to ensure patients get needed follow-up care and to report any side effects to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Conversa's vaccine efforts reinforce its commitment to help the industry during this time: Conversa was one of the first digital health companies to respond last year with a suite of COVID-19 Virtual Care Programs, helping hospitals increase care delivery capacity by automating the outreach to, and monitoring of, vulnerable patient and employee populations.

Organizations like UCSF Health, Northwell, UNC Health, Prisma Health, SCL Health and University Hospitals are using Conversa to provide symptom checking and triage, provide check-ins with quarantined patients, deliver lab results and screen employees, patients and visitors.

These programs have been made available to millions of patients and have been used by hundreds of thousands of individuals every day. 

Northwell Health recently added Conversa HealthCheck, a daily screening application for employees, students and visitors, to its work with employers to create and maintain a safe environment.

Conversa continues to enable health systems to virtually engage, monitor and manage patients more effectively and efficiently than ever before, for chronic care, acute discharge, perioperative, oncology, OBGYN, prevention and wellness, and more.

Conversa's automated virtual care platform engages patients at high frequency and scale, triaging to higher touch/cost care venues when necessary, improving care coordination, reducing hospital readmissions, and increasing patient adherence to treatment plans.

Recently, the UCSF Digital Health Awards named Conversa "Best Remote Diagnostics company" for 2020.