The healthcare domain has been comparatively slower to employ digitization within its sector despite the increased utilization and consumption of the internet in our daily lives. Yet, citizens across the globe still exchange handwritten medical documents/prescriptions and find it an arduous task to even make a direct doctor’s appointment. Moreover, the fear of losing vital information is another factor that plays a crucial role in the slow uptake of the digitization of records. Systems such as EHRs (Electronic Health Records) are far more secure today than their conventional counterparts, revolutionizing how healthcare administration is handled.
A staunch advocate of this transition is Carl Osborne, EHR Consultant and Creator of seeCOLe, bringing to the market his novel flagship product, seeCOLe. This application stands apart from other solutions in the market as it is one of the first fully automated augmented reality applications.
Using HL 7 FHIR APIs eliminates the scribe or middleman when clinicians need to get clinical data while conducting surgery or in the middle of a physical exam. In addition to that, because the system is fully automated, the end-user can also document various parts of the medical record by using verbal commands without needing to navigate to a laptop, desktop, or workstation. “We aren’t the first to use augmented reality, but we are the first to do it without the use of someone watching live footage and transcribing the medical visit,” informs Carl.
Leveraging Skill and Expertise to Deliver Better Solutions
Carl is making groundbreaking progress in the healthcare industry through his work and experience gained. He has worked on 23 applications for more than 25 different health systems in his 17-year-long tenure. “I have incorporated the lessons learned along the way and the positive attributes of the different management styles I’ve encountered into how I lead my current projects,” elucidates Carl.
He goes on to tell us one of the biggest challenges he has faced is inspiring change. He often recounts situations where an organization has been following certain processes and procedures for so long that they have become accustomed to conducting work in a certain way, even if it is not backed by strong rationale. Through this, Carl learned the art of gentle questioning.
When first meeting a client, Carl would try to identify the pain points, understand the organization’s goals and aspirations, and finally, locate the technology compatible with helping achieve the set business goals. “Sometimes with technology, not everything can be addressed, and so you have to be really good at being creative knowing what tools are out there to satisfy your client,” explains Carl.
The Journey
Carl walks us through the application’s journey of inception. seeCOLe, which stands for See Clinical data On Lens, was created when he observed clinicians had to navigate to a laptop/workstation to analyze the health record. It was then that Carl had the idea that Clinical data should follow the clinician wherever they are, whether in the hospital or clinic and that the information needed should be summoned and used as a tool instead of a journal. “Coming up with the name was a bit of a challenge. Being an African American, I wasn’t taught about many famous black clinicians. So when thinking of a name for the app, I sought Google to search for any famous clinicians of color with a cool-sounding name, and I came across this Caribbean nurse named Mary Seacole. Coming from a Caribbean background, it was intriguing that there was a nurse during the Crimean war who worked alongside Florence Nightingale, and so I took her name, and what the application was about and seeCOLe was born,” declares Carl.
Becoming a Core Part of the Healthcare Domain
An innovator, Carl has devoted his time, skills, and experience to reshaping the way we perceive healthcare. His career spans one and a half decades as a leading clinical informaticist – optimizing, designing, and building computer systems for various healthcare organizations. He is also a part of the Guyana United Youth Development Association of New York (GUYDA), an organization centered around improving the lives of youth in Guyana, South America, and the Caribbean. He is also the public relations officer tasked to assist with developing the website and anything technical-related.
In addition, he has also designed and developed a mobile application called WellnessWits, which was launched this year. This mobile application allows clinicians to conduct Medical Group sessions virtually and permits the clinician to monitor the patients between visits. He adds, “What was a huge milestone for me was working directly with physicians, in particular, Doctor Kike Oduba. This was my first time working to develop a system that aligns with Medical Group sessions. She had a lot of faith in my ability to help design the application and advise on the user experience. When we went live with the mobile app, it was very special for me.”
Another significant milestone for Carl this year was winning MIT Hacking Medicine in the spring. “There is nothing like having your peers award you as one of the most innovative people in your industry. Over the weekend, I was surrounded by some of the great minds in clinical informatics and to come up with an idea and work with people whom I’ve never met before to come up with a solution was outstanding,” says Carl.
These achievements can be attributed to Carl’s drive and passion for elevating the patient-healthcare provider relationship. Additionally, since winning the 2018 Oracle Cerner code app challenge, seeCOLe has been approached by several healthcare organizations interested in piloting the solution. The organization has also been invited to speak about seeCOLe and showcase its abilities.
Mapping Future Plans
Carl envisions building strong relationships with his customers and vendors while transforming the healthcare domain. Keeping this in mind, he has recently onboarded a chief medical officer. He explains his tactical move to us, “Having a chief medical officer gives seeCOLe a lot of credit because you have another clinician who can articulate the benefits of using augmented reality in the healthcare industry.”
The next step for seeCOLe integrated with AR is to harness the power of AI to help make clinical decisions by analyzing the data and making instantaneous recommendations. Carl elaborates, “I knew augmented reality would be a game changer. By utilizing devices such as the Google Glass or the Vuzix Blade 2, I knew that using those tools and integrating them with the electronic health record was a no-brainer. The next step with this application is to create a true virtual assistant that not only can present clinical data on demand but take that clinical data and assist the clinician in making medical choices.”
Carl and his team of experts are currently working with the US government on implementing a new functionality within seeCOLe that will improve patient safety through augmented reality.
For More Info: https://www.seecole.app/