3 questions with Labinot Bytyqi, CEO and Founder of virtual healthcare delivery platform hellocare.ai

hellocare is a leading platform in virtual healthcare, combining software, hardware, and AI to enable health systems to deliver virtual care services and enhance patient engagement. Its offerings include AI-assisted virtual nursing, AI ambient monitoring, telehealth, remote patient monitoring, hospital at home, and alerting and workflow management tools. With implementation in over 60 health systems, hellocare has improved nurse satisfaction, patient experiences, and operational efficiencies in healthcare environments.

Labinot Bytyqi is the founder and CEO of hellocare. After pursuing a career at technology firms like SAP, Bytyqi founded hellocare to make an impact on the way providers care for patients.

“My vision is deeply rooted in a profound respect for healthcare and its significant impact on people's lives. This initiative is born from a deep understanding of the burdens and pressures confronting healthcare professionals daily.”

In this conversation, Bytyqi speaks about how hellocare is transforming the healthcare experience for everyone, making it more accessible to patients and less intimidating, while also supporting healthcare workers in their critical roles. Recently, at HIMSS 2024, hellocare announced that Alexa will be built into its virtual care delivery platform and will enable patients to place calls, request care from doctors and nurses using just their voice, and enjoy activities such as playing music and accessing information - experiences customers around the world have come to expect from Alexa.

Why did you decide to integrate with Alexa?

Our decision to integrate with Alexa stems from a shared vision we hold with Amazon regarding the transformative potential of technology in enhancing human lives. At the core of this integration is our belief in the power of technology to humanize and personalize the healthcare experience, making it more accessible, comforting, and intuitive for patients across all walks of life.

Healthcare environments, particularly hospitals, can often feel intimidating and impersonal, a sentiment that is especially acute for patients navigating the vulnerabilities of illness or the challenges of aging. Recognizing this, we sought to elevate the patient experience by harnessing the simplicity and familiarity of voice technology. By enabling patients to use voice commands through Alexa to interact with their physical surroundings—be it adjusting the room temperature, opening blinds, or summoning nursing staff—we not only enhance their comfort but also empower them with a sense of control over their environment.

This integration goes beyond the mere convenience of voice-activated commands; it touches on the profound psychological impact of creating a space that feels familiar and responsive to their needs. For many patients, the presence of Alexa, a technology many are already accustomed to at home, helps bridge the gap between the hospital and the home, fostering a sense of safety and normalcy within the healthcare setting.

Our integration with Alexa reflects our commitment to realizing the concept of the 'smart hospital'—a vision that is not a distant future but an immediate reality. Smart hospitals embody the integration of advanced technologies to create a healthcare environment that is not only more efficient and effective but also more compassionate and patient-centered. Through our collaboration with Alexa, we are not just imagining the future of healthcare; we are actively building it today, one voice command at a time.

Furthermore, Alexa is designed not solely for patient use. It also offers significant benefits to bedside nurses by enabling the use of voice commands to initiate various tasks that allow staff to automate routine tasks and dedicate their attention to providing quality healthcare.

Can you speak to the development process at a high level?

Our team took about thirteen years to build a comprehensive platform that offers different virtual care services and digital experiences. This involved building out a platform that is healthcare compliant, secure, scalable, and, more importantly, easy to integrate with other Electronic Health Record systems like Epic and Cerner. Integrating Alexa into our hellocare devices and platform was fairly straightforward considering that the hellocare team has deep knowledge in audio acoustics and working with modern architecture integrations via APIs. What made this process especially seamless was the onboarding process helped by the Alexa Smart Properties team to jump-start the process.

Can you speak to the ROI you are seeing or hope to see with Alexa?

Integrating Alexa into our platform transcends the novelty of advanced technology; it's a strategic move to enhance patient experiences and operational efficiency. This integration yields both tangible and intangible returns across several areas:

Patient satisfaction and engagement: We expect that voice command capabilities will boost patient satisfaction and engagement, improving patient satisfaction scores that are crucial for healthcare system reimbursements.

Operational efficiency: Alexa allows patients to manage their needs via voice commands, alleviating the workload on nursing staff and streamlining operations. This not only saves costs by optimizing staff duties and reducing time on non-clinical tasks but also offers insights into patient needs through voice interaction data, enhancing service and care delivery.

Better health outcomes: The ease and efficiency of Alexa integration can positively affect health outcomes by creating a supportive and empowering environment for patients. This can lead to better adherence to treatment plans and improved communication with healthcare providers, which may reduce healthcare costs through fewer readmissions and complications.

We also expect to see a positive return on investment from the Alexa integration that includes enhanced patient experiences, increased operational efficiency, improved health outcomes, and opens new opportunities for brand differentiation and revenue. By leveraging voice technology, we're paving the way for a future where technology and healthcare work hand in hand to deliver exceptional value to our patients, staff, and stakeholders.

The integration of hellocare with Alexa is available and healthcare organizations can enable this capability by contacting hellocare or the Alexa Smart Properties team.